the witch is dead

[richardfamous]

Its a week since she died, can't even bring myself to name her (never know, might bring her back).

Good riddance
May she rust in pieces

Richard

[richardfamous]

OK, so that was a bit lazy!

The career of the Witch and Poison Girls was almost the same. The start of Poison Girls can be traced to The Body Show, a theatrical event at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1975 when the original Poisons worked together, and wrote songs, for the first time. The Witch took over the Tories in 1975 (though she was by then 'the milk snatcher'!)
The dawn chorus fx over the first section of The Bremen Song (on the ep 'HEX') was recorded on the morning of her first election win in 1979. Her toxic ideas permeated the political landscape of the 80s, and though she outlasted us by a year (1990 she was winkled out, we called it a day in 1989) the overlay seems quite real. The ludicrous Falklands adventure/fiasco, the miners strike, widespread rioting, 3 million unemployed, communities decimated, council housing sold off and the house price bubble primed, the Battle of the Beanfield (lots on google) and of course the madness of the Poll Tax.

Here are two ways I think it affected us, and many like us. First was replacing respect with money. The best gigs when we started were without a doubt 'free' gigs or benefits (for the standard rate 'chips and petrol') Think Stonehenge free festival versus the consumer fest of Glastonbury. That all changed sometime around 1983 when. if you did a gig for free, you were treated as crap. And conversly, the more you charged, the better you were treated and the better the gig! A very noticable change in attitude all round.
The second big change was the politisisation of the police. During the miners strike the police, and armed forces dressed as police, attacked UK citizens taking part in legal protests. The police had been co-opted into an arm of the Government, as against their previous role as an arm of the State. A very significant difference, and one that has been in force this last week to supress any dissent towards the mad witch. I read today thet you will have to get permission to turn your back on the funeral possession (as a mark of disrespect) as it might upset someone, or risk arrest!!!

Not a moment too soon
Richard

[pm]

Though you Richard did mention her name in ‘Another Hero’ when you sang one of the lines!

She died the day she was booted out. I managed to get into the public gallery in Westminster that day in 1990, interesting atmosphere.

Since there was no effective national political opposition in the 80s maybe it was left to Poison Girls, The Smiths, Specials/Jerry Dammers, Madness, Beat, Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, Linton Kwesi Johnson etc to rise above it all and make great music that addressed (and gave voice to) real lives and greatly enriched the culture and humanity of this country as well as supporting people who were fighting daily - miners, peace women.

Her overdue death this week really evoked incredible nostalgia in me for the amazing way people like yourselves and so many others refused to be cowed down and pushed through with a unique vision. It was an astonishing time in retrospect and it all came back very vividly last week like never before and induced a certain sadness for something lost in the passage of time. Our former selves? relationships?, lots of things.

I’ve been listening to the ‘Dread, Beat An’ Blood’ album (released in 1978) this week and LKJ certainly knew what was coming.

[richardfamous]

Yes pm, we did mention her name, and look what happened!

I agree that the passing of the witch did unleash a barrage of nostalgia, most of it unmitigated crap.

It did get me wondering, though, whether the artistic protests in the 80s, be it in music, alternative comedy, film, even theatre, made any difference at all to the political process. Sometimes, in my cynical mode, I feel as though we were all tolerated (even encouraged!) as a safety valve for those in power (the mad witch was reputed to love her Spitting Image puppet).

The worst bit for anarchists was that the protest movements, and that latent energy, got taken over by the supposed 'left wing' (especially during the miners strike) and frittered away, and we were left with bloody Geldolf and the Band/Live aid compassion fest for aging rock stars. Then of course the Labour party morphed into Torylite and the real agenda became clear.

I must say that if what she started, and the two faced Bliar completed, was so good, how come the whole neo-con experiment of the last 30 odd years has left us up to our necks in shit.

Richard

[pm]

I think you avoided direct mentions in interviews though. It never felt like you were paying too much attention to her, unlike some who contributed to her iconic status.

Oh the fog of nostalgia! Some newspapers seemed to confuse her with Joan of Arc!

I can’t say what difference artists made but I think some did unfortunately contribute to the sense of demoralisation which seemed to permeate the era. I think all governments would love to have their artists serving the interests of the state. People still talk about working class and middle class but I think there is also now a state class made up of politicians, financiers, journalists, broadcasters, ‘special interest groups’, rich artists and artists who aspire to be rich etc. They may pretend to themselves and us to differ about things but really that is not the case. Some may pose as dissenters but their ‘dissent’ costs them nothing and it is not really dissent and is addressed to a gullible audience who deceive themselves as well.

The left wing you may be referring to were/are more interested in selling party newspapers and chewing up and spitting out new members and organising ‘mass movements’ like Stop The War that march up the hill and march back down again. Those people have no stake in the outcome of the battles they pretend to fight. They latched on to the Grunwick dispute in 1977 and left as quickly leaving the striking workers to their fate (who were also abandoned by the TUC) moving on to ‘Rock Against Racism’ who Poison Girls may have had some experience of back in the day.

The stars who took part in Live Aid were in a win/win situation. They got a global audience they could not have dreamed of and they got to do good deeds in a very public way. Queen were resurrected and U2 broke big.

Robin Ramsay of that brilliant magazine Lobster described Tony Blair as the last dribble of Thatcherism down the leg of Britain!