Gender: Male
Status: Married
Age: 42
Sign: Gemini
Country: UK
Signup Date: 3/27/2007
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Thursday, May 28, 2009
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Street Voice Music Site / Street Voice Political Site
PO BOX 410 / Margate / Kent / England / UK / CT9 3RB
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Editorial
In 1982 at the tender age of fifteen I put out my first ever newsletter 'Oil! O! The Newsletter' which led me to big bad world of putting out fanzines, promoting shows and running a huge music distribution service. The message from the start and has always been attached to everything I've ever put out has been the serious message of Anti Fascism
. Early 1982 the National Front went out to recruit young white working class kids like myself. I live in a small agricultural town whose only other industry was working down the mines or work at an engineering company. Once those industries started collapsing the Far Right started having a field day.
I was approached and actually went to a meeting only to ask awkward questions. While those idiots were bleating on about non- whites I was like 'What about the Specials you cunts?’ I loved that band and some of my mates were black so me joining the NF was always going to be a non-starter.
Even at a young age with no political thoughts at all I could see what the fash were trying to do. They were trying to turn good honest working class people against each other all because they didn't like the colour of some ones skin.
I rejected that political way of thinking as did most of my mates. Some were suckers and joined in because they thought it made them a better Skinhead or Punk Rocker. I couldn't do it! I couldn't and wouldn't turn my back on my black mates and neither could I turn my back on The Specials who still bring me so much pleasure.
In 2009 it's happening again and this time it's with the British National Party. In other European countries there are similar groups stirring up the same old racial hatred and for me that sucks. The Far Right should be challenged both politically and in physically as they are never going to get the race war they cream over so much.
This newsletter is dedicated to all the people who fought fascism in WW2, Fought against Franco in Spain, AFA in the UK for their fight against fascism to all those Anti Fascists who have kept up the fight in other countries too!
In 1982 I said these words 'The Only Good Fascist Is A Dead One’ and in 2009 I still stand by those words.
Don't be fooled by Fascism - Challenge it! Fight it! Destroy it!
Rock On!
Steve DIY
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Street Voice Play List
The Stupids - The Kids Don't Like It / Margot MacDonald - Walls
Heidi Schwartz - Firefighter / Enter Shikari - Common Dreads
The Ghost Of A Thousand - New Hopes, New Demonstrations
Ellie Lawson - Lost Songs / Taylor Swift - Fearless
Screaming Mimi - Leap Into My Fervent Arms
Stand Out Riot - Carnival Militia / Amanda Droste - Unfazed
Jennifer Logue - The Pretty EP / ASSERT - Laser Tattoo Removal Service
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NeeChee is a cool alternative model from Stoke. Having chatted with her on line I thought this is one cool lady who fits in well with what Street Voice is all about. Aside from modelling NeeChee has a wicked taste in music and is very good fun too! You can check out what NeeChee has to say for herself HERE.
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Hear Kitty Kitty are a Punk Rock band fronted by the very gorgeous Nikita La Tijera Meow who has put together a top class band who deserve to be heard world wide. When I heard their debut album 'Tails From The Alley' I had to interview this Californian based band. You can read what the band have to say for themselves HERE.
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I Don’t Care
I don’t care if the world were to end tomorrow.
I don’t care of anything to do with empathy.
I could care less of sympathy.
Let the blood flow.
Let the animals scream.
Let the humans cry.
I will shop as I please.
Eat as I please.
Fuck over as I please.
I just don’t care.
If my dirty little fingers can hold it, it’s mine. If I want it.
I don’t need cause. It’s not backed by gold.
I don’t want peace on earth. I want a piece of whatever you’ve got.
I don’t need bliss unless it’s through the ignorance I’ve paid a pretty penny for.
I don’t know my lover’s birth date, but I know their bank account number by heart. Scratch that, I don’t need a heart.
I don’t need. I want.
Stealing from a baby is so easy because it’s what to be done.
I’ll take whatever I want from the future.
I’ll take. Take. Take.
If it requires the lives of four, take five. Just in case.
Because I don’t care.
Sincerely,
The Majority
Keimi Yamagata
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Simara Rose and her project Starlit came into my life earlier this year and I have to say I was blown away with what this lady is about. Using alternative music, art, photography and words Starlit put across a serious message that really does need to be heard. They target things like racism, sexism, homophobia and animal liberation. Starlit are one of the most refreshing groups I've heard in a very long time. Simara Rose rocks and I was so happy to feature her in Street Voice and you can read what she has to say HERE.
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The young folk in the UK tend to get a hard time in the press but there’s one group of people that put paid to all that nonsense and it's Kent based rock band The Razz. They recently did a gig for me a few weeks back and despite it only being their third gig they blew every other bands off stage. Influenced by the likes of the Clash, Libertines and Beatles to name but a few this band certainly know how to play live. More importantly they keep the attention of the crowd and that's not band for a young band. I caught up with for an interview and you can read what they had to say HERE.
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A Vote For Fascism Is Not The Answer
On June 4th there are local council are Euro elections up and down the UK mainland and on of those political organisations seeking to gain seats both locally and in the European parliament are the fascist British National Party (BNP).
Over the past few years has seen an economic downfall in the UK and the BNP seek to divide the communities in the UK by targeting non-indigenous people to the UK. Two groups of people they are seeking to blame in particular are legitimate immigrants and illegal immigrants.
To blame immigrants (be they legal or legal) is a farce as the problem lies at the feet of the capitalist pay masters who pull the strings in all areas which are currently affecting people such as employment, housing and low pay to name but a few.
It would be just easier to use slogans like 'Fuck The BNP' but that doesn't do anything to ease the problems that the UK is facing so I will attempt to show in just a few words why immigrants (legal or illegal) are not the cause of the problems we face here today.
Employment: The current employment situation has been down to greedy bosses. Some of it was down to wanting to cash in on the ridiculous loans banks were throwing out to anyone who'd ask for one. So mass goods were produced and the markets were flooded and the bosses were rubbing their hands as the profits rolled in then all of a sudden the banking systems collapsed and the bosses have been left with un sold goods on the market forcing some companies into bankruptcy so jobs went. That problem was down entirely down to greedy bosses and bankers not the immigrants. Street Voice 1 – BNP 0
There has been much criticism that when the gates of Europe were opened people came into the UK. These people are known as economic immigrants because what they earned they sent back home to better their families lives. Now many UK people complain about this but what they forget is that many UK people leave the UK to better their lives and all those immigrants from Europe are doing just that. In the UK we've been doing it for years – The UK construction workers had no choice but to go to places like Germany in the 80's as there was no work here. If every worker was repatriated throughout the world and sent back to their place of origin then as a country we'd be in a far worse state than we are in now. Up to two years ago more British people have emigrated than immigrants entering so you do the sums! It would be much fiercer competition for employment as most people from overseas are more likely to have better training and experience for their chosen careers. Street Voice 2 – BNP 0
Low Pay: That’s always been an issue in the UK due to greedy bosses and the BNP turning people against each other is wrong. It's no use the BNP blaming the immigrants for the low pay because whether immigrants were here or not the pay packets we receive are pittance and have always been that way. We as a nation used to stand up and fight for better pay and working conditions but once Thatcher and her Conservative party were in power things changed. People stopped looking out for each other and started thinking about what they could cream. When they crumbs were large these people were happy but now they're very small the BNP are using that to turn neighbour against neighbour. Don't fall for it people. The power lies with us a class to put things right. We need to get some back bone like the French workers have and start striking once more. Throwing non-indigenous people out of the UK is not the answer. Fighting the right enemy is the solution. Street Voice 3 – BNP 0
Housing: The BNP claim that council housing given to immigrants over the indigenous people of this country! False! There is very little council housing left in this country and the Tories in the 80's forced local councils to sell off their housing stock at a very low price to tenants. Many took the councils up on this offer leaving council houses almost wiped out! Hardly any new council properties were built to replenish the stocks and in time there has been an acute housing shortage. This has nothing to do with immigrants. Legal immigrants who are on low pay live in some right poor housing conditions and those who are illegal well work that one out for yourselves! The problem there lies with the people who run this country. Street Voice 4 – BNP 0
Law And Order: The BNP blame immigrants for the current problems with law and order in many areas in the UK. Much of that responsibility has to be taken by us as communities as many people tend to a blind eye or/and couldn't careless. We need to look at the old ways where many neighbours looked after each other. Many people today don't even know their neighbour's name let alone speak to them! That is very alarming but hey if we want things to get better than it's up to us to stand together and make it happen.
The Govt have to shoulder some of the responsibility too. They need to stop being wishy washy and help with restoring harmony in areas where crime has over taken. We are living in Britain 2009 not a bloody Mad Max set!!
The BNP's answer of kicking the immigrants out isn’t going to change anti social crime in areas and you know it too! Don't use some other poor bugger as a scape goat. Street Voice 5 – BNP 0
Now if any British on my mailing list are considering using the BNP as a protest vote please think again! Some may say that the BNP are reasonable but that's what the German population thought in the 1930's.
Fascism doesn't start with concentration camps – That's where it ends!
It's time to look at the problems we face with more convincing solutions rather than just voting in a fascist organisation and doing something similar to what Hitler did with The Jews.
FIGHT THE RIGHT FIGHT – FIGHT FASCISM
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One of the most pleasurable experiences in reviewing is when you come across young talent like Deeyana. Deeyana is a British artist who was born in the Mediterranean in Belgrade. The passion this lady has for music is unreal. She is not only a great singer and songwriter but she also plays a mean saxophone. This is one lady who has an excellent vibe about her so Deeyana was interviewed for Street Voice in regards promoting her new single 'Keep Pushing On'. You can read what Deeyana has to say HERE.
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Meg and Rebel Heart came into life by accident. While checking out another band and not liking them at all. I then accidentally clicked on a link and ended up on the My Space page of Meg And Rebel Heart. Now hearing this seventeen year old singer and her band play was just something else. Their catchy rock numbers just blew me away so here they are featured in Street Voice. I contacted Megan Bennett and an interview took place and you can read what she has to say HERE.
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Jennifer Logue really is one of life's pleasures. She really is! I'm surprised this New York based Pop / Rock artist isn't signed. When there's so much rubbish in the charts this lady is a breath of fresh air and would show the world that you can be a commercially successful artist without having the need to compromise the music. I'm hoping Jennifer will be coming to the UK in the Fall so if anyone could get in contact to put on her a show for her that would be wicked. In the meantime enjoy the interview with Jennifer which can be seen HERE
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True Love: Art and Politics
Devotion. Passion. Creation. The marks of a perfect marriage. Just like that between politics and art. Whether film, music, performance, photography, molding clay with your bare hands, taking a spray paint can to a brick wall or placing a brush to a canvas, art is nothing without the evocation of emotion. And nothing is more filled with emotion than politics.
The power coming from a safety pin clad band practicing in their garage or that from the filmmaker raking up late fees on their rented equipment could power the revolution we so badly need in this world in these times. People are in danger of losing everything and then some. But when an empathic song plays or a photo captures the expression in the eyes of its subject that mirrors that in the heart of the viewer, something moves over inside a person and a type of hunger is ignited like nothing else.
This newsletter itself brings to the public interviews with bands and artists who are doing their part to keep art alive. There is no replacement in life for passion. No substitute for conviction. Art is truth. Art is beautiful and a way of life. The artists have always been the revolutionaries and all revolutions are sparked by some political upheaval.
Take the Sex Pistols. The vocals of Johnny Rotten shook a cracked foundation that was covered with rugs. An uprising is an understatement for what they accomplished. Fellow vocal artist Kathleen Hanna. The outspoken comedian Margaret Cho. And more importantly, all those whose names I don’t know who are on street corners or clubs with only one working light bulb who keep the fight alive on a homegrown level.
If we are to believe that the greatest art comes from the worse times, then it’s time for all artmediums to shine. Politics obviously divide, but the unions they create are stronger than any other. You don’t need to know the name of the person whose arm you’ve hooked your own through at a protest to know you are connected. Art creates that invisible linkage.
It’s comforting to know that even if you can’t be on the frontlines, your art may just reach them for you. Your music, your paintings, your writing…your art, it will live on and fight after you’re gone. Art allows you to fight and be civilly disobedient from cradle to grave to forever.
Keimi Yamagata
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Just when many are wondering where the humour vanished from the British punk rock scene look no further because the Buck Brothers are here to put that right! When their new single fell through the letter box courtesy of Quite Great I had to feature the Buck Brothers and you know what they've given me one good interview. You can read what they have to say for themselves HERE
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Having kicked, screamed and fought their way out of Brighton, England in early 2007 with awe-inspiring debut full-length This Is Where The Fight Begins, THE GHOST OF A THOUSAND have rapidly become one of the UK’s most valuable and unique musical assets, thanks to their unhinged,
uncompromising and utterly invigorating style. Having spent the last couple of years challenging old perceptions of what British hardcore was made of – collecting a Kerrang! Award nomination and a place in Q Magazine’s Top Five metal bands, along the way - the quintet are back with an album that doesn’t just tear up the rule book, it sets it ablaze and leaves it on your doorstep in a middle of the night drive by.
Having formed in 2004, vocalist Tom Lacey, guitarists Andy Blyth and Jag Jago, drummer Memby Jago and bassist Gaz Spencer, have relentlessly pushed themselves forward - whether that’s via a punishing tour schedule or annihilating live shows - in the pursuit of greatness. The pinnacle of that boundary pushing ethos is finally here, in the form of New Hopes, New Demonstrations – an album that steps beyond the band’s hardcore roots and squares boldly up to swaggering rock ‘n’ roll, hard rock heroism and, in places, epic opuses. It’s a record that will stand the test of time and prove that …Ghost… are in this for the long haul.
“NHND is still very heavy,” front-man Tom Lacey explains, “heavier than …Fight… in places, but its whole feel is a lot sadder, and its mood changes all the time. This album could have been a straight up sing-a-long catchy hardcore record, but it’s very much not and I think that will come as a shock to some people. I'd like to think that the perception of us as a band within a scene will be blown apart now - the new stuff doesn't to me feel like anything that other bands are doing right now.
“We knew it had to be a more emotional album,” he concludes, “and we wanted it to feel like the band reveal more and more as the record goes on. It starts very bluntly and ends in a completely different place. It’s a lot rougher around the edges and it’s a lot more human. We’ve come a long way as musicians since …Fight... We've shifted the goal posts with this one.”
Recorded in Stockholm’s Studio Grondahl in the winter of 2008, under the watchful gaze of Pelle Gunnefeldt [The Hives, Refused], the band knew they wanted to do something unusual from the get go. “Pelle was our first choice,” Lacey says. “We wanted to do something different and un-tinged by gloss and glamour, and make something weird and dark. We felt Gunnerfeldt had that maniacal edge that would bring that out of us – and he did".
New Hopes, New Demonstrations: a new sound for new times. The Ghost Of A Thousand: a new contender to be your new favourite band.
Having kicked, screamed and fought their way out of Brighton, England in early 2007 with awe-inspiring debut full-length This Is Where The Fight Begins, THE GHOST OF A THOUSAND have rapidly become one of the UK’s most valuable and unique musical assets, thanks to their unhinged, uncompromising and utterly invigorating style. Having spent the last couple of years challenging old perceptions of what British hardcore was made of – collecting a Kerrang! Award nomination and a place in Q Magazine’s Top Five metal bands, along the way - the quintet are back with an album that doesn’t just tear up the rule book, it sets it ablaze and leaves it on your doorstep in a middle of the night drive by.
Having formed in 2004, vocalist Tom Lacey, guitarists Andy Blyth and Jag Jago, drummer Memby Jago and bassist Gaz Spencer, have relentlessly pushed themselves forward - whether that’s via a punishing tour schedule or annihilating live shows - in the pursuit of greatness. The pinnacle of that boundary pushing ethos is finally here, in the form of New Hopes, New Demonstrations – an album that steps beyond the band’s hardcore roots and squares boldly up to swaggering rock ‘n’ roll, hard rock heroism and, in places, epic opuses. It’s a record that will stand the test of time and prove that Ghost are in this for the long haul.
“NHND is still very heavy,” front-man Tom Lacey explains, “heavier than …Fight… in places, but its whole feel is a lot sadder, and its mood changes all the time. This album could have been a straight up sing-a-long catchy hardcore record, but it’s very much not and I think that will come as a shock to some people. I'd like to think that the perception of us as a band within a scene will be blown apart now - the new stuff doesn't to me feel like anything that other bands are doing right now.
“We knew it had to be a more emotional album,” he concludes, “and we wanted it to feel like the band reveal more and more as the record goes on. It starts very bluntly and ends in a completely different place. It’s a lot rougher around the edges and it’s a lot more human. We’ve come a long way as musicians since …Fight... We've shifted the goal posts with this one.”
Recorded in Stockholm’s Studio Grondahl in the winter of 2008, under the watchful gaze of Pelle Gunnefeldt [The Hives, Refused], the band knew they wanted to do something unusual from the get go. “Pelle was our first choice,” Lacey says. “We wanted to do something different and un-tinged by gloss and glamour, and make something weird and dark. We felt Gunnerfeldt had that maniacal edge that would bring that out of us – and he did".
New Hopes, New Demonstrations: a new sound for new times. The Ghost Of A Thousand: a new contender to be your new favourite band.
This album is released on Monday 1st June so make sure you pick it up. To check out the Street Voice review of New Hopes, New Demonstrations please go HERE.
This last minute interview just came in from the band and you can read that HERE. Thanks very much to Jag for sorting that out.
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ANARCHY is becoming a regular feature in Street Voice. This lady is not only one of the hottest models on the circuit but she's a trained ballerina and has a love for beer and hard Rock N Roll bands. She also has a wicked sense of humour. Anarchy has been asked to write a column in Street Voice and we hope from next month there'll be something from her for all to read. You should check out the website and give this cool person some support. We love you Anarchy.
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New teenage sensation Brittany Harkins is making waves across America at the age of just fourteen and it wont be too long before she is signed. I reckon within the next two years she'll be being played across American airwaves and then a year later across Europe. This Pop / R n B singer has an amazing voice and for the next issue we should have a full interview and a copy of her latest single to review.
You may think I'm wrong but when I interviewed the multi platinum artist Taylor Swift two years ago when she was an unknown artist. Everyone was saying I was wrong but her talent proved them wrong. Taylor's record sales are unbelievably high and Brittany Harkins will be on that same level.
Watch This Space
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For those not in the know Enter Shikari are a British post-hardcore band formed in 2003. The band is named after the boat of one of the band member's relatives and a character in a play Rou wrote before forming the band both of which are named Shikari. Shikari also means 'Hunter' in Persian, Hindi, Nepali, Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali. Their debut album, Take to the Skies was released on March 19, 2007 and reached number four in the Official UK Album Chart. The album was later certified Gold.
For several years now this band have been tearing up venues and giving their fans some excellent live performances. Enter Shikari have proven they aren't a band that rely on studio trickery and can indeed pull their sound off live. Some of their fans even think they're better live than in the studio.
Their second album Common Dreads, is due for release on June 15th, 2009 and you can see the Street Voice review HERE
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Reviews
May 2009: Page One reviews include releases from the likes of Birdeatsbaby, Devilish Presley, Ellie Lawson, In Case Of Fire, NOFX, and Placebo please go HERE
Page Two reviews include releases from the likes of the Black Lips, Goddass, In Case Of Fire, Laurel Aitken, Rancid and Serpico please go HERE.
June 2009: For all the latest reviews for June include reviews from the likes of Black Sabbath, The Gaslight Anthem, Heidi Schwartz, Margot MacDonald, The Teasers and The Stupids please go HERE.
Please Note The Reviews Are Updated Almost Daily
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That’s it folks. Hope this issue has been a good read? The next issue is out on 4th July 2009. In the meantime stay say and if you’re British remember a vote on the 4th June 2009 is a vote for fascism. Don’t be a mug – Do the right thing – Fight Fascism!
6:31 PM
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