Skuds’ Sister’s Brother

There are a couple of South Africans in my office, so I asked them what their reaction is to the news of PW Botha's death.
They said it was roughly what my reaction would be to Thatcher's death but I don't believe them because they were not singing and dancing.
By the way, its time to put […]

[Read more →]

Today I learned that there are no railways in The Gambia or Somalia and that Lee Brilleaux was not born on Canvey Island, or even close, but was born in Durban, South Africa.

[Read more →]

Back in 1981 the German band United Balls did a song called Pogo in Togo.
Although hardly high art it was fun and catchy. As a good European, I like to keep an ear open for the best of mainland music as once you get beyond the generic Euro-pop there is some interesting […]

[Read more →]

Forget Hillary Clinton going for the democratic nomination, or the clever spoof of Christopher Walken running for president, the really exciting one is George Weah for President of Liberia.
It appears that the decision to run was clinched when he realised that the shirt number he always had with Milan (9) and […]

[Read more →]

I have just finished watching the most amazing concert on BBC Four.
It was two hours of highlights from a concert held in March this year in Dakar to raise awareness of the ongoing malaria crisis in Africa. For anyone at all interested in African music, the line-up for the show was more […]

[Read more →]

I am currently ploughing through a book called Always Feel a Friend by Peter Biddlecombe.
I sort of enjoyed his first couple of books, so when I saw this for a pound or two in the remainder shop near work I thought it would be worth buying, but its starting to look as […]

[Read more →]

In just a few hours we will be up at Hyde Park. We have just been planning our route and decided that walking from Victoria is probably the best option. We will aim to get there early enough that we can walk up Park Lane and see the Pride march coming […]

[Read more →]

Was it any good?  Well, even from the back where there was not so much atmosphere it was enjoyable, but I think the whole thing could have been streamlined a bit. You could have fitted just as much awareness-raising and entertainment into a shorter time span than 10 hours.
There was a lot […]

[Read more →]

There may have been a lot of people at Hyde Park who were only there for the music, and felt that the constant political messages were an interuption or just the price to be paid for the entertainment - and I’m sure you could say the same of the various anti-racist, Red […]

[Read more →]

I enjoyed the day, but I am glad I didn’t pay to go. There were a few things I would not have been happy about if I had paid for it - but when its free you make allowances.
The biggest problem was the big screens. They are a great idea for large […]

[Read more →]