Crossing the Line

As part of the the Johnson government’s Brexit Bill, the UK Parliament has voted against guaranteeing the right of unaccompanied child refugees to be reunited with family living in this country.

Labour's Lord Dubs - who came to the UK as a child to escape the Nazis, and who has campaigned for the children, called the decision “Appalling and deeply distressing." Jeremy Corbyn said, "for his whole life Lord Dubs has worked tirelessly to ensure children affected by the worst aspects of global injustice are given sanctuary in this country … Now this government, in its first weeks in office has ripped up those hard won commitments."

 

The Guardian reports ..

"More than 10,000 unaccompanied children are believed to have entered the UK over the past decade using dangerous methods such as hiding in the back of a lorry. 90% of the minors have illegally entered the UK and done so by risking their lives.”

 

In solidarity with the abandoned children and in disgust with our dubiozly ‘elected’ ‘government’ here are Dubioza Kolektiv and Manu Chao with

 

Cross The Line

Heaven and Hell

Heaven and Hell - my article in Public Reading Rooms

From Glastonbury to Greeks against austerity

Dubioza Kolektiv's visit to my Spanish 'party' gave me the idea for the final chapter in 'Left Field'. I thank them for that, but more importantly wish them all best for their Sunday night gig at Glastonbury. If you are there go to Shanri-La stage . If not there catch them on TV. They are very exciting and not to be missed. 'Left Field' is packed full of musicians and their stories – from DK to Rachid Taha/Brian Eno, from Tom Morello to Matt Black & Coldcut, Eric Clapton to Elton John. Read about the Pavarotti & Friends gigs, Paul McCartney in St Petersburg and the War Child 'Help' album. Order your copy of LF here. STOP PRESS: Support the Greek people in the bailout referendum on 5 July. They are at the cutting edge of the fight against austerity.

Seventy miles speeding

La Torre de Dalt is a large 'Mas' (a Catalan traditional farmhouse) in the hills above Girona. It's the place where, for the last five years, Anne has run her annual writing retreats. When her course ended this June, I hired it for a second week and invited friends and relatives to join me. I told them this was a celebration for my 70th year, but it also marked the completion of Left Field - bringing together some of those who have played their part in my life and without whom I would have had no memoir. I had worried how these people from my past and present would mix: a political banner maker, a businessman, a bereavement counsellor, musicians, writers and journalists. I need not have. Widely and in some cases, wildly, disparate people spent the week talking, eating, drinking, walking and partying together. No one there will forget how we all fell in love with Alice Kilroy as she encouraged us all, willingly or not, towards the Revolution. The writers soon became known as the 'murmuration of writers' as they met in corners of the building to create new work or read excerpts from their novels and poems. They seemed to flock and flow through the building like birds. In the evenings, during their 'open mic' nights, they read their work and invited the rest of us to join them. Oha Maslo, who had driven from Bosnia to Spain with Teo Krilic and his family, apologised for turning down their invitation to hear them: “As soon a I see the first comma,” he told me, “I go into a coma.” If I'd told him that one person was writing a novel about setting up a whorehouse in Australia, he might have forgotten his problems with punctuation marks. In any case his apology was adopted by Julian Herbert, one of the poets there, as the opening phrase for his paean to the week: Comma coma? Trace back through castles, Until, until they're in the sky, And we hold hands together, While we fly. Teo played guitar while Oha joined him on the cajon drum. They sang Na Klepeci Nanulama – about a woman hearing the clogs of her dead mother on the stairs. La Torre looks across at the Cap de Creus above Cadaqués where Dali had his summer home. Some guests visited his museum in Figueres, but they didn't need to go there to experience the surreal. The week took on a weirdly wonderful quality when the Balkan rock group, Dubioza Kolektiv, dropped by. They were en route from Barcelona to France, a tour which was to end at the Glastonbury Festival. When someone asked them where they were from, they answered from practically every country of ex-Yugoslavia. “What was that war all about?” said Mario, “Here we are all together again.” With funky haircuts and dressed in black they didn't touch the bottle of whisky they had brought for me, but drank tea and coffee and ate dainty biscuits. The whisky was emptied that evening, but with no help from me. I am no longer allowed to drink much alcohol. Oha and Teo shook their heads in bafflement each time I turned down an offer of another beer or glass of wine. The only advantage of not joining in, apart from staying alive, was that I was able to talk a bit more sense. On the last day, Maureen Larkin read a 'haiku' for me, which pretty well sums up my life in 18 syllables: '70 miles speeding, The cops have not caught me yet, No point braking now'. Check out La Torre: The Film!

(Left Field has reached its target of 100% . If you haven't bought your copy yet it's now 100% certain to be published)

Order here

PIC: Alice Kilroy' 'banner inspired by the haiku

Rock band visits La Torre de Dalt

My 'birthday' week in Spain takes on an even more Dali-ish quality when Oha tells me that Dubioza Kolektiv are coming round for tea. They have been gigging in Spain and are 30 kilometres away on the road from Barcelona to France. They are on a European tour which ends at the Glastonbury Festival on 28 June. (Shangri La and Glade stages for those going there this year). DB are returning to the UK on 21 November to perform at the 100 Club. They are known for their fresh take on hip-hop, reggae, dub, rock and Bosnian folklore. The concept of the band has been to show the rest of the world that life in the Balkans exists outside the overused media stereotypes. Many of DB's lyrics revolve around themes of peace, understanding and tolerance, alongside criticism of nationalism and injustice. They are known in Bosnia for lending support to the country's first grass-roots civil society group “Dosta!” and their album release party for album “Firma Ilegal” took place in front of the Bosnian Parliament, in a powerful statement against government corruption. Oha had been in DB as percussionist and singer and I was at their performance at the Arena stadium in Belgrade in April 2014 when he made a guest performance which you can see here. Check out the last five minutes. It was great to meet up again with Senad Šuta, who I knew when we were both at the Pavarotti Music Centre, Adis, Amir, Vedran, Brano, Armin, Mario and others. Yesterday they arrived with a Carhu single malt whisky as a present for me. Thank you guys. Hey, the bottle is empty this morning! Want to join me at the 100 Club in November? More about Bosnia and music in 'Left Field'

PIC: Dubioza Kolektiv with me at La Torre de Dalt, 15 June 2015: Teo, Oha and Senad Šuta  are 2nd, 3rd and 4th from left

Rachid Taha with Brian Eno (guest Mick Jones from the Clash)

27 November 2005 at the Astoria in London (now buried beneath Cross Rail's new station at Tottenham Court Road). I helped organise this gig for the Stop the War Coalition with Rachid's UK manager, Rikki Stein. What a night! And what a great surprise when Mick Jones turned up to join them for 'Rock the Casbah'. And we raised some serious money for the anti-war movement.  Music has been an important part of my life: the Pavarotti and Friends concerts, the daily events that took place at the Pavarotti Music Centre, music workshops in Sarajevo and Mostar, smuggling Island Records Bob Marley exhibition into war-torn Mostar, organising gigs for Stop the War. And I have seen music change the lives of others around me. Greetings to all the great musicians you will come across in Left Field - Oha, Teo, Eugene, Senad Suta, Atilla Aksoj, Dubioza Kolektiv, Siktar, Mostar Sevdah Reunion, Deicola Neves,  EM, Paul Belben and so many others. Enjoy 'Rock the Casbah'