‘Wake Up’ fades in with a rolling bass-heavy guitar against a backdrop of birdsong that gives way to the type of aural textures that make the guitar pattern seem like a loop of old film going round and round until the vocal arrives to free it. A short introduction of a song, but packed with enough detail to set the scene and draw the listener in. In fact, you have to stick your head right in to get through the soundscape. It’s a bit like crossing a room full of random, sparkling, oscillating objects that are suspended in the air. In a good way, of course.

‘Butterflies’ is a much more rounded piece of songwriting and arrangement, built around a delicious acoustic guitar (particularly at the end) in which each note played sounds like a fat summer raindrop falling onto the chalk of a piece of pavement art and merging its colours. This soon gets interwoven with violin  (by Rebecca Aimi),  and myriad, idiosyncratically phrased vocal harmonies. There’s something beguiling about the lyrics. “If i was a butterfly, I’d make love happen all the time” seems straightforward and idealistic enough, but there’s a fisherman being caught on camera to give the listener a sense of place and time, like a snapshot taken for reference.

That could be a pun to take us to the third track, ‘Library Days’, but it’s not intended. Here, the guitar figure shimmers beneath what could be a letter or an email written after a chance encounter. The melody itself is very simple, and once again it’s the arrangement of violin, struck strings and drones and the production that colour the song in, on this occasion taking it over completely and carrying the listener to the end of the song.

Just listening to music and watching the world

‘Gymnastics ‘is given more room to breathe and move about, in much the same way as gymnastics come easy to the narrator in a daydream. “When I try in the real world I just land on my optimistic head” she tells us, but here in this song Natalie Evans’ voice stretches as gracefully as she wishes her limbs would in real life.

‘Late Journeys’ opens with a folky guitar pattern that brings to mind early Joni Mitchell or Richard Thompson, and the listener has the impression of the artist relaxing on a coach or train journey next to someone who is so familiar that it’s enough that they are together without the need to communicate, just listening to music and watching the world as they pass through it. Short and simple, and with the feel of the tracks or the tarmac rolling beneath it. Almost perfect, but the handclaps that briefly accompany feel obtrusive.

The closing track ‘Houses’ arrives in a wave of vocal harmonies, fingerpicking, fret squeak, percussion and xylophone. There are elements of unrest in this song and it seems to want to ramble, which it does beautifully until it can never find its house again, thus leaving the whole album gloriously unresolved. It certainly makes one wonder what is coming next.

in summary, the album is, for the most part, made up of lots of very simple, beautiful things. It has a lyrical innocence that complements Natalie Evans’ almost child-like voice and it’s very listenable most of the time. It’s like being in a snow globe, or losing youself in a Super-8 short film. What producer Martin Ruffin brings to the songs is a sense of other-worldliness and texture that works at its best until the song becomes an underlying element of the production rather than the predominant one. There are arguably places where less might have been more, but by and large the production carries the mood and charm of the songs extremely well.

Houses is recommended listening, to keep you warm until the sun eventually comes out. You can download it from www.http://natalieevansmusic.bandcamp.com/album/houses.

Words: Phil Dillon

Now the end is here, and so we face the final curtain…And this time it looks like not just farewell, but really goodbye from Medway’s folk heroes The Singing Loins. If folk is a genre built around telling it like it is, where it is, then few bands could match the Loins for truly reaching not just the heart, but also the blood and the guts, of their stomping ground. From ‘Angel of the Medway’ to ‘Psycho Hippy’, few other bands have captured the beauty and squalor, the romance, violence and absurdity of the Medway Towns like the Loins have.

In a Shakespearian sense, the Singing Loins have always been a band that have played to the crowd, with rousing singalongs and nudge-nudge wink-wink end of pier innuendos for the cheap seats, and delicately woven minor key tragedies for the folks up in the gods. All human life is here; and it’s the Loins everyman tendencies, worn bleeding heart on sleeve for all to see, that will be most missed. They’ve been a band of the people, for the people, so it makes sense to let the people, the Singing Loin’s fans old and new, to have the final word as the band bows out gracefully, and finally, this coming weekend.

Farewell to the Singing Loins, by the fans

‘Too many memories to list, I will have to find a new favorite band….One line or a few in particular always stand out for me and remind me of their tender and often poignant nature and why I love them so. As follows:…..”The Topless twins of All-Hallows on sea – Why don’t you ever look directly at me? – ‘Though you are prob’ly 18 and I am just a kid – I’m gonna be a pop star, you’ll wish you fuckin did!”…Gawd bless the Ghost of old Rose,The whores of Rochester and the Singing Loins.’

Reavsey Reavsey

‘I think that one of my many favourite memories of the Loins is a great photo taken by Steve Gliddon down Strood Riverside, showing their cheeky funside – I give you Charlies Angels a la Loins!’

Mel Heron

(C) Mel Herron

‘I was in college when I heard ‘Valerie’. It remains quite simply one of the most beautiful songs ever written. Poets and musicians, bawdy and sentimental, the Singing Loins were a band that mattered.’

Erik Carl Son

‘So long my Old China…listening the first time… in the garden …warm sunny day ……my dad still alive…but old and ill….the tears just came …couldn’t stop them.My dad has gone now, and that song still breaks my heart.

Yet still the gigs, the close sweaty crowded gigs, filled with humping bumping beer-swilling raucous bonhomie, and laughs. To make you laugh and break your heart within the breadth of a couple of songs …that is , and always will be special, and I will treasure having The Singing Loins in My life.

Thank you lads’

Blackcloud

‘My favourite memory (one of many) of The Loins is getting to share a stage with them at the 100 Club. What can be better than bashing drums along to an amazing band at a fabulous and famous venue.’

Jonathan Gibbs

‘A certain lass who shall remain nameless leaping on stage at The Barge for Chatham Girls and Brod’s face during the course of her stage invasion, getting to be the Christmas fairy one year chucking sequins about the place also at the Barge and at any gig singing along at the top of your voice feeling like you belonged to one big family. And don’t get me started on the lyrics, or we will be here for some time…’

Janine Gray

‘Memories, too many to recall, fave gigs? a rather life altering one where I met a certain ‘Arf’ at The Roseneath August 2006 (thanks for the intro Belinda Ben Barnes) giving way to a rather special wedding performance August 2007 . The Barge Christmas gig was always magical If you liked it raucous n raw The Gordon Beer Tent at The annual Rochester Sweeps Festival would take a lot of beating. For ‘amazing’ you couldn’t beat the Legendary 100 Club 2012. Andy & Vicky’s Garden Party was special a few years back. Our jolly jaunts to Dunkirk and France with our french friends Sur Les Docks were great fun. And that’s just off the top of my head. As for my fave songs ‘Hauling in the Slack’, ‘Poteen’, ‘House in the Woods’,

Pamela Jane Allen

‘So far, my best memory is when I discovered the band… that was just 4 days ago! too bad that you’re putting an end to it. I’m already learning a few songs and planning to come to Sweep, from Paris…’

Jérôme L’enclume

‘Brilliant band, very supportive of the Medway Love Music Hate Racism festival having played several times. Very poignant when one of our great friends and festival team Bobby Wade died and had Davey Hobo-Jones Malone at his funeral singing “ain’t the world a lovely place”. The Medway music scene will certainly be missing something in less than two weeks time.’

Vince Maple

‘”Angel Of the Medway”, Xmas at the Billabong – top stuff and my first Loins experience!’

Bill Williams

‘I’m in the US, and haven’t yet had the pleasure of visiting the UK. But after finding the Loins (courtesy of Pandora radio, by way of Len Price 3 and Billy Childish), I was hooked.

Through their music, I feel I’ve gotten a window into a very real part of England most of us ‘murricans never see. Unvarnished, unsentimental, but loving all the same.

Thanks, guys, for offering your music up to the world.’

Brian Driver

‘Arfur battling through the ‘laryngitis years’ but still doing his best with backing squeaks etc and ‘Poteen’ and ‘Homeward Bound’ cracked me up (there are recordings!!!!). But there are far too many moments to recall.’

Mark Crosland

‘Sorry to say I only found out about these guys about three years ago. The first CD I got.. Songs to Hear Before You Die. The song ‘So Long my Old China’ moved me so much it inspired me to write my first song about my Dad titled ‘Tonbridge Boy (1928-1993)’.Pleased to say that we were at the launch party of their last album at the 100 Club.’

Gary Woodhams

‘There are not enough words to encompass all the memories…’

Lesley Conquest

‘The moment at The Boogaloo Bar in North London that I opened the envelope that Brod handed me with the artwork for the proposed House in The Woods vinyl release… am not sure at the time I could hide my under-whelment… another disembodied brown envelope inside with a black and white picture cut out and stuck on the front with sellotape…soon made beautiful raggedy sense… The Singing Loins show the beauty in life, via the medium of a grubby lens.’

Vacilando ’68

‘Crybaby Special supported the Loins at 2011′s Medway Eyes’ ME3 album gig at The Nag’s Head. I think it was our fifth gig and we were extremely new to it all. Me and Jason were just performing as a two piece at the time, and we both worked together doing cleaning (glamorous) we finished at 8pm and drove straight to the gig…and I’ll hold my hands up and admit I didn’t know who the Loins were at the time and thought it would be just another gig. Oh how wrong I was. I saw a huge crowd outside the pub and couldn’t believe it…and inside was just rammed. The gig was great, one of my favourites to this day, and have been a big Singing Loins fan ever since. Shame they are splitting, but I’m glad I was introduced to them before it was too late and I feel privileged that we got to share a bill with them.’

Josh Carson

‘I used to live in Medway, left in 2005 and now live in Shetland but keep in touch with what is going on down there. My good friend Bobby Wade (sadly now deceased) took me to a gig at The Man of Kent saying “You will like this band Matt”!.. And I did! Great songs, beautifully sung and I thoroughly enjoyed that evening. Hobo Jones played at Bob’s funeral as well which was rather poignant.

A great folk band is how I would term them but they also had songs with some hard-hitting lyrics. It is sad to hear that they are breaking up but they want to go on and do other things in life and who can blame them? Hopefully they will all carry on as musicians in their individual ways and I wish them all the best in their future careers. A part of Medway that will always remain in my memories…’

Matthew Lawrence

‘When the tide goes out / Their songs remain’

Words: Andrew Day / The Fans

Pictures: (c) Phil Dillon unless otherwise stated

The Singing Loins

The Beacon Court Tavern is packed tonight with a crowd that is the very definition of eclectic. Youth culture loses its plumage over time and reduces down to a few tells and a certain attitude. And if you can remember Hazel O’Connor from the 1980s you probably left your feathers in the gutter a long time ago my spiky ones. Which is not to say that there isn’t the odd survivor here who severely damaged the ozone layer before coming out. There always is. And more power to them.

It struck me later on that the tunes we would here tonight were, for the most part, survivor’s songs. And that goes just as much for the supporting act too. Didi Bergman seems to have sound-tracked so many of my favourite days out since I came to this river a few years ago. I have always enjoyed hearing her, and tonight was no different.

Accompanied by a talented flautist whose name I did not catch, Didi kicked into gear seated and hatted as usual and let loose that soulful harp of a voice that always gets me. I cannot go into specifics about what she sang as the P.A. was pitifully weedy and introductions were drowned amidst the general beer fuelled hubbub. I do know that she finished with ‘Happy Song’ though which frankly should become a Medway national anthem if I have anything to do with it. The set was good then, received politely by someone else’s crowd. It was ever thus for a support act.

And so to the main event. Hazel O’Connor has been gigging for some years now as a stripped down trio which began with ‘The Bluja Project’, featuring Clare Hirst on sax and Sarah Fisher on keys. Oh, and you know who on vocals. It feels very much like a real ‘band’ right from the off, both Hirst and Fisher have distinguished session careers and can drop big names, but this is a tight unit.

Another thing they both have in common is an essentially jazz background which shines through tonight, but the fire of 1980 is still there. Oh yes. Hitting the stage to the strains of the fist punchy ‘Writing On The Wall’ (from Breaking Glass natch) Hazel is into her windmilling full-beam stride from the off. Do my eyes deceive me? Oh yes, the crowd seem to have woken up!

When you take away the baubles of guitar and drums from songs that originally had them, the song has to stand up and be counted. Hazel was to prove that her lyrics could do this time and again as the evening marched on. She has a story to tell, and is an accomplished ‘tween song raconteur much like Geldof is these days. It would be easy for this kind of show to become a kind of ‘evening with…’ style of thing, but her anecdotes illuminate rather than bore, such as the one about her globe- trotting exploits prior to launching into the furious intensity contained within ‘Runaway’.

We are then back in Breaking Glass territory with the storming double header of ‘If Only’ and ‘Blackman’, the latter featuring great sax work from Hirst and a ska bounce that has the front rows rocking. The middle section of the set then settled down into a more jazzy groove with a Nina Simone number ‘Do What You Gotta Do’ followed by another autobiographical story, ‘My Friend Jack’ about a Venice Beach war vet sleeping on the beach.

There is no doubt that Hazel is wearing her considerable heart on her non-existent sleeves tonight (and every night). These are personal songs, a record of a life in interesting times.

The band then veered away from that movie mid set, exploring other areas of Hazel’s back catalogue. ‘God Bless The Child’ is a nice jazzy number which is an original of this line up, followed by ‘Decadent Days’ featuring some fine rag piano by Sarah Fisher. If I have to me critical some of the covers drift by a little. The Stranglers’ ‘Hanging Around’ and a later outing for ‘Chasing Cars’ by Snow Patrol, the latter so beloved of advertisers and the man in the Barbour jacket stood at the bar singing every word are favourites of for O’Connor but I can take or leave them honestly. Her own work stands up much better.

A pleasant folk number that I missed the title of washed over the crowd but was well received by the hardcore down the front. There then followed a heart crushing story about making a snowman for  Hazel’s dying mother prior to a beautiful song  entitled ‘I’ll Give You My Sunshine’ which is the first time I’ve ever heard a performer tell a crowd to shut up so she can be heard. And there is good reason. If someone you knew tried to tell you about such a thing and they started chatting idly to a neighbour instead you’d be pissed too I’m sure.

O’Connor is not here to kiss anyone’s ass for sure. The following Breaking Glass number ‘Big Brother’ is prefaced by a little 80s history, Thatcher 101 essentially, which is always going to be divisive in a pub that has meetings to support ‘our nation’s flag’ on other nights. Needless to say the headliner stood her ground admirably and it was never more apt. When I get my chance I’m going to kick him in a,a,a,a,a,arse too.

And then they played it. Among the torchiest, most spine tingling 4 minutes and 49 seconds ever committed to tape. And the best use of saxophone since Baker Street. It is a credit to the power of O’Connor’s other material and the strength of this band that ‘Will You’ hasn’t become an albatross to be sneered at as Geldof does with ‘…Mondays’. And it was sublime. The throwaway musings of Mr Lightbody on the aforementioned Snow Patrol track that followed paled in comparison.

We had been romanced and lulled then we had our eyes and ears smashed out by a storming ‘Eighth Day’ and the air was much punched. This machine is not upset.  An encore of Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’ properly hit the spot and summed up the evening. Sarah Fisher was left to carry most of a call and response sing-a-long called ‘Keep Breathing’ before her line manager returned to join in and take the bows she fully deserved.

Keeping breathing. There’s no finer ambition. This had been a night of survivor’s songs. An aural finger raised with a smiley face painted on the nail. Well done madams, well done.

Words: Barry Fentiman

Pictures: hazeloconnorofficial.com

I wondered what he was doing there, at 8pm in November, why he was outside, on his own, at that time of night. Then it occurred to me that he’d be too young to go into the bookies, and that he was most likely waiting for someone older, possibly his dad, to come out. It got me wondering just how powerful the need to gamble, be it financial, or compulsive, must be to leave your own kid out in the cold on their own at the onset of winter.

Poverty, gambling, debt and the recession

Visit the average high street in Medway and it won’t take long for you to pass a betting shop, a pawnbrokers or a store offering payday loans. Switch on daytime TV when you get home and it won’t take long either before you’re bombarded with adverts for online bingo, betting, or the  Wonga Grannies, cheerfully extolling the ease of saddling yourself with a short-term loan at 4,140% interest.

The prevalence of gambling and short-term, high interest payday lending is partly a result of the desperation bred by five-years- and- counting of economic hardship in the UK. It’s also the product of the long-term de-regulation of these industries at government level. Coupled with these factors is the  alarming intersection of private interests in the gambling and loans industries,  members of parliament and government policy.

What is being played out in the high streets of Medway is the cynical exploitation of the unemployed, the poor and the desperate, by industries that feed on that very desperation. But the explosion in the availability of high street betting and payday loans isn’t merely symptomatic of hard times and cold-blooded policy making by the  government, it’s also reflective of a war on workers’ rights and the systematic degradation and exploitation of those out of work or on low incomes. It’s a conflict that is played out at national level, but also one that is taking place on our doorsteps, and in the chambers of Medway Council.

Gambling

There are around 37 gambling premises in Medway, not including bingo halls and single slot machines in pubs and small businesses. Reaping the benefits of governmental re-regulation, bookmakers and casinos have never been freer to open premises, leading to a proliferation of gambling shops in the Medway Towns. Rules regulating the advertising of gambling and related products have also been loosened in recent years, meaning that daytime TV and footballs matches are bookended by adverts for online bingo, web casinos and mobile betting.

It’s shockingly easy to gamble, and shockingly easy for bookies to entice you to do it. For an industry that feeds off addiction, an industry that even has its own gambler’s equivalent to Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous, the GA, it seems that gambling companies have a  free hand to peddle products that feed off addiction and desperation.

The desperation isn’t coming from the affluent Ascot-attending crowd or the folks who enjoy an occasional flutter on the Grand National. The concern expressed by Medway Council over slot machines in bookies stems from the fact that the kind of constant, high-spending gambling enabled by bookies is most prevalent in areas of social deprivation and high unemployment:

‘High-time/high-spend gamblers…displayed the most adverse socio-economic profile. They were more likely to live in areas of greatest deprivation, live in low income households and be unemployed. This group showed a relative preference for betting on horse races, fixed odds betting terminals and playing casino games.’

The Gambling Commission, 2010

Unemployment in Medway currently runs at 4.5%, below the national average of 7.8%, but well above the Kent average of 3.4% (compare  that to 1.7% unemployment for Tunbridge Wells for example).  Poverty is endemic in Medway, with current child poverty figures standing at 23%.  Economic conditions among the poorest people in the Towns are a breeding ground for the kind of acute desperation that feeds the low end of the gambling industry. As people are hit by this year’s benefits cuts and bedroom tax, the need to find extra cash, even if it’s at a high risk and a potentially disastrous cost, can only get greater.

Payday loans

The payday loans industry forms an interesting nexus with the fallout from the kind of high-risk, high-volume gambling going on in Medway. The same people at the bottom of the economic pile who pay out large amounts on bets or slot machines are often the same people who resort to high-interest, quick-paying loans to clear gambling debts or feed a gambling addiction.

Outside of gambling, buying essentials like food or paying utility bills accounted for 60% of the 8.2 million payday loans taken out in 2011-2012 (Which?/The Guardian). Medway, with its ingrained poverty and unemployment, has the highest volume of payday lenders’ shops in the country. Like the bookies, these lenders are well placed and well primed to feed off the desperation of those out of work and struggling to get by on dwindling welfare payouts. Although this fact doesn’t seem to trouble some of our local MPs.

Lenders like Wonga also share common ground with the gambling industry in their lobbying of Conservative MPs to pursue further de-regulation of their sector. High interest lenders and bookies thrive when the rules governing their activities are relaxed, allowing them to operate and advertise free of government hindrance or scrutiny. As a party ideologically committed to loosening the rules governing the private sector, the Conservatives are an obvious target for morally dubious industries looking to advantage themselves.

Workers’ rights

The story of payday lenders, lobbying and the Conservative Party goes further than the mere de-regulation of the lending industry. The Beecroft Report,  published 2012, was a report on employment law that recommended stripping workers’ rights, restricting parental leave and making it easier for firms to sack employees at short notice. It was a report commissioned by the government, with very real potential to influence  policy towards employment law, a report which contained ‘a number of excellent ideas that we are taking forward’ according to the Prime Minister.

The report in itself was controversial, but what is even more so is that Adam Beecroft, a long-standing donor to the Conservatives,  is chairman of Dawn Capital, a venture capital firm whose investments include Wonga. At which point you consider just how cynical it would be to wonder if someone, whose business interests touch on high-interest lending to unemployed people, would have at least a slight interest in creating more unemployed people.

The Beecroft report fed into an instinctive opposition to workers’ rights that has been a feature of Conservative belief since the inception of the labour movement in the 19th century. Improving working conditions, and the rights of employees, is seen as oppositional to the interests of business and industry in traditional Conservative ideology, with ‘freedom’ in terms of businesses’ freedom to keep costs down, prioritised over the needs of workers.

It’s at this point that focus shifts back from the Conservative-led government at national level to Medway’s Conservative-led council. Last year, the council proposed to withdraw from national pay and conditions terms for its staff, proposing to effectively sack and re-hire its entire workforce in order to avoid a nationally enforced 1% pay-rise for its employees. This was done in the face of national cuts to local government budgets, but must also be seen in the context of a council that pays fourteen of its executives an annual salary of over£100,000.

So on one hand, the council is committed to opposing high-stakes, high-volume gambling, with its Labour members seeking a curb on payday lenders. On the other hand, we have a council that is seeking to exclude its employees from a 1% pay rise, when inflation currently stands at 2.8%, meaning that Medway council workers are in for what could effectively be a 3% pay cut over three years. It’s the kind of decision that could quite easily drive the council’s own employees into the arms of payday lenders and bookies, and its’ the kind of attack on workers’ rights that all too often characterises Conservative administrations at national and local level.

If Medway Council’s own workers aren’t safe from their financial wellbeing being put at risk, then what of Medway’s poor? With a Conservative council, and Conservative MPs, under a Conservative government that’s all too ready to listen to the interests of betting shops and payday lenders, and all too willing to cut the welfare budget at every opportunity, you have to fear for the thousands of people unemployed or living in poverty in the Towns.

If the state can’t or won’t maintain the welfare of its out-of- work-citizens, and indeed if what Stewart Lansley says, that the ‘traditional Conservative belief…that the blame for poverty lies in a lack of personal and social responsibility, that the poor themselves are largely to blame for their own situation’ is true, then Medway’s least well off citizens are in for an even harder, harsher time.  This, ultimately, can only mean more destructive gambling, more debt, more pay day loans, and more kids waiting in the cold for their dad to come out of the bookies at 8pm on a November evening.

Words: Andrew Day

Pictures: Richard Reader (luciferscage)

You know what I love about the twenty first century? That women are no longer objectified.

We can go out to clubs without feeling pressured into being sexualised. We can drink with our friends at events that aren’t focused on the female body. We can get ready for a night out without adhering to sexist dress codes.

Oh wait. Apparently Rochester clubs aren’t included in this mix.

Casino’s nightclub are designating a whole weekend at the beginning of April to women getting their cleavage out, which is loosely linked to some “international cleavage week” that is celebrated worldwide. I’m guessing by men.

For those less well-endowed ladies, you may not fear because according to the Casino’s promotional material, “it’s not about the size it’s about the presentation”. Well if wearing nipple tassles gets me free entry, why the hell not?

Yes there are benefits. You get free entry before 11pm if you get your knockers out. But, personally, I don’t fancy paying with my dignity instead thanks.

Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a case of me thinking that women shouldn’t get their lady cushions out if they fancy it. Low cut tops really aren’t the big deal here. It’s the fact that there is an entire event based around cleavage, and it’s male bouncers deciding whether or not I have dressed appropriately to qualify for reduced entry prices. It’s men approaching me asking if I’m enjoying tonight’s event because they sure as hell are. Is it really worth it to get into the UK’s ”biggest and breast party venue”?

I suppose it could be loosely argued that they are “empowering” women but I can’t help but feel if this was the case they would have made an effort to put on a less sexist event on the weekend of International Women’s Day, which has just been.

This isn’t the first time that Casino’s nightclub has run an event that I personally find highly offensive to women. This weekend it’s Pole Idol.

Just grind on a pole, in front of the hundreds of people that also make an appearance, and you can win £250.

But don’t worry; it probably isn’t sexist because we’re past the stage of women being classed as entertainment for men.

I suppose because the majority of women that do end up trying their hand at dancing promiscuously on stage are doing so for free, as there can only be one winner. Their choice in the matter is what makes it okay. But then again, it’s the cheapest strip show that most of the men in the audience will ever attend.

Speaking of Casino’s sexist events, if you missed out on hearing about their traffic light party on Valentines Day, you probably also missed out on a one night stand and a bunch of women raring to go.

For those of you unaware of a traffic light party, the dress code, which was implied as being a requirement for women, is determined by the wearer’s sex drive. Sorry, I mean relationship status.

If you dress in green you are single, in yellow you are “taken but try me” and red means you “may as well be married”. Wonderful.

Now I don’t know if any of you are thinking the same, but if you’re dressed in yellow and willing to be unfaithful, that implies to me that wearers of green are expected to be up for pretty much anything.

This to me seems like a recipe for disaster. If a woman dresses in green but turns down a guy, what’s to say things won’t turn ugly?

Objectifying women to me more or less spells out there being a risk of danger because men are made to believe that because a woman wants to wear a low cut top on a particular evening means that she also wants a lot of other things. But then again, Casino’s probably don’t care about that.

A spokesperson for Casino’s said: “We are always mindful of any promotions that we do, with a view to not offend anyone.”

Well you know what Casino’s, I am offended.

Words: Michelle Gleave
Pictures: Dead Prez / Brian Belectic

Article originally appeared in The Medwire

Medway’s finance chief Cllr Alan Jarrett (Con), referred repeatedly, and apparently with some bitterness, during his budget speech, to his “dear friend” Eric. The Local Government Secretary has cut the central grant by 3.65% with worse to follow next year. The first thought that may occur to the reader when informed of Cllr Jarrett’s position is “well don’t be a Conservative then”.

But cognitive dissonance goes with the territory for most Tories of my acquaintance, so cashing in his membership or standing up to his masters has probably not occurred to the councillor. He is therefore just going to have to make lemonade. Although manure pie might be more accurate.

It has occurred to me that such municipal place men are increasingly little more than the “grooms of the stool” that were employed in Tudor times to keep the well upholstered rear of the monarch clean and covered. Even the occasional reader of The Medway Broadside will be aware by now what reckless Eric is doing on us from a great height. His factotums in the shires and boroughs are being asked to do more with less, essentially bagging up the gifts that central government deliver us and tying them up with a bow to make them look nice.

So what has Cllr Jarrett got for us then? First the good news my lovelies, this year’s council tax will only go up by an average of 43p per week, yes 43p! It is at this point that it begins to sound like a payday loan advertisement. Even more so when one considers that there will be as many as 14,000 people who were previously deemed too badly off to pay anything, who will have to find hundreds of pounds they don’t have. This was a decision made by Medway Borough Council, their hand may have been forced, but it was their choice.

So it is clear that our duty holders are scrabbling about for money wherever they can find it, even if it is down the back of a sofa recently taken in lieu of payment from an unemployed person. But what are they going to do with it?

There is of course much to-ing and fro-ing between Peter and Paul, one example concerning the roads. Lopping £1.25 million off the road maintenance budget only to re-allocate a fifth of it to pay for insurance claims from pothole trips is expediency with a capital “E”. A policy of “let’s not bother and then hope no one sues” effectively. Pity about that broken leg though.

One might say such things are necessary in a time of austerity when the bankers have been allowed to run free and destroy the economy. But if cutbacks are required I would contend that it would be best to look after services for the people that can least protect themselves from the coming storm rather than glamour projects designed to attract the last few people on these islands with any money to spend.

For example, The council is pouring £5 million in to the South Medway Development Fund to do up Rochester Airport. The hope is to create “a thousand hi-tech jobs” to boost the local economy. Aah jobs! There’s no better way to gain public support in times of high unemployment. But who will they be for? Some will go to locals I hope. My guess is that many will be commuters who will earn their dough in Medway and spend it where they live. That is if there are any takers to set up businesses here in the first place. There have been issues of that nature with large projects in Medway before. Many of the units at Medway Maritime remain unfilled since it was built, not to mention the houses sprouting up at Liberty Park for which there are no buyers. Maybe when times improve these projects will thrive and the council coffers will be full. Then maybe all the people who have had their council tax benefit wiped out will get it back. I know, sometimes I’m just too funny.

This leads us finally if indirectly to the Brian Blessed affair. To be honest I think it could be a lot of fun to have a bus ride around the area narrated by shouty Brian, even if it does cost thirty grand. Just imagine it -

“AND OON YOOOR LEFT! BROMPTON BARRACKS CONTAINING THE GORDON MEMORIAL!

“IT WAS ERECTED IN 1890 IN HONOUR OF HIS BRAVE DEATH AT KHARTOUM!

“BUT I DON’T BELIEVE IT! GOOORDON’S ALAIIIVE!”

Or something like that. There has been a similar thing done with a talking lift in Wolverhampton voiced by Noddy Holder. He does though, at least come from the area. They could have asked Billy Childish. But he of course isn’t as famous as Brian, which is the whole point. It reminds me of The Medway Culture and Design awards where the interval music was provided by a bought in band as a room full of distinguished local musicians looked on.

So what links Rochester Airport and a shouty bus tour? The fact that the council are prepared to throw any amount of money at attracting people to come here. Be it with vanity tourism schemes or hi-tech business parks. They do this while at the same time extracting as much as they can from the people that already live here in order to pay for it. There are pot holes and litter all over Luton but hey! We’ve got Brian Blessed!

Now there’s a nugget to consider. Could you wrap that for me councillor? It’s a gift.

Words:  Todd Sileen

‘I apologise for our failure to deliver the service our children and young people deserve.’

There are many problems with cases being signed off and then being re-referred. According to Jenni Horn and Rebecca Hughes’s article in the Medway Messenger, in 2011/2 32% of closed cases had to be re-referred and so far this year 46% of cases have been re-referred, almost twice the national figure of 24%.

One of the big problems is that the initial assessments of cases are not being done thoroughly and they have not been necessarily identifying the risks or problems faced by children. I don’t want to jump onto a scare mongering band waggon but this is a similar situation that saw the death of Baby P a few years ago and the sacking of Sharon Shoesmith. We can be glad that nothing like this has happened in the Medway towns and hopefully this Ofsted report is the wake up call that was needed to rectify this.

Although it is easy to blame Councillor Wickes for this failing as the portfolio holder there are greater issues afoot as well and we should not be focused fully on him – though I will return to this momentarily.

I am heartened that the Council seem to be taking this exceptionally seriously with the Chief Executive and that they are ‘determined to improve and we’ve had in place an improvement programme for some time’. Amongst the bad news budget, which I’ll write about at a later time, Councillor Jarrett has found money to pump into this exceptionally lagging department, with new systems coming in to release social workers from paperwork and back into field work, as well as a new £1.4m electronic recording system. There is also a board of different departments and agencies getting together to advise and improve and assist – all good news.

Medway’s new Director of Children’s Services, Barbara Peacock, has only been in post for some five months and, with a record of improving children’s services at Sandwell, is definitely the right person to have on board. To some degree we should be looking at the previous head of department, Rose Collinson, who was also in post during the Medway Test debacle and left her post last summer. There also needs to be questions asked about the appointment of Duncan Clark who was assistant director of children’s services on a six month contract. He was forced out of a job by Kingston Council because under his stewardship the safeguarding department received an inadequate rating. How could Medway Council hire someone to such a vital post when they had a track record of failure?

So, what to do about Councillor Wickes?  Opposition parties are calling for his head, and although I do not believe all of the blame lies with him, this isn’t the first time for a major failing to fall at his door. As I mentioned earlier there is the Medway Test debacle which rocked the Medway Towns a couple of years ago. He is portrayed as a bit of a well meaning bungler and whether that is the case or not the public have lost confidence in him as portfolio holder. If this was National Government he would have gone or been promoted sideways. It would go a long way in gaining trust with the public if he did stand down, or was replaced, so as to completely draw a line under the whole affair – new heads, new board and new direction bent on immediate improvement.

He won’t go though; after the Medway Test problem the Tory cabinet closed ranks and he held onto his position and this will no doubt happen again.

I do believe questions behind the scenes in Gun Wharf need to be asked, and much soul searching is needed as to how the service got in such a bad way, as well as what can be done to rectify it. The Council have failed to protect one of the most vulnerable sections of our society and now real action needs to be taken.

Words: Chris Sams
Pictures: Stroodlights

Re-published from the original post on the Ginger Liberal blog

This year the theme of International women’s day is “The gender agenda: gaining momentum”. Over time and distance, the equal rights of women have progressed. We celebrate the achievements of women while remaining vigilant and tenacious for further sustainable change. There is global momentum for championing women’s equality.

In Medway, the celebrations are organised by a small core of volunteers. This year we have arranged for a motivational speech from Sam Hall, founder of 17% the social enterprise championing and encouraging work from female writers and playwrights. We will also have belly dancing from the Tribal Banshees, and a short workshop for those who’d like to give it a go, ‘Our Mothers’ real stories’

The celebrations take place 12:30-16:00 on Sunday 10 March at the Roffen Club, Rochester. See Facebook and the Medway International Women’s Day website for more details.

Words: Medway International Women’s Day
Pictures: Library of Congress

These changes are being driven down by central government at an alarming rate, so much so that people are genuinely confused about what is going to impact when, and on which parts of the community.

There are two changes in particular which Medway Broadside readers need to be acutely aware of; my view is they are both vicious in their impact and their targeting of the most vulnerable in our society.

Firstly there is the Bedroom Tax; this sees people who are in homes either through the council or another social landlord who are going to have their incomes cut because they have a spare bedroom – although it is not as simple as that.

We are already aware of examples including families who have members in the armed forces who will have their income cut, individuals who have care needs who will have their income cut, even those who have suffered the absolute tragedy of their child dying faces the prospect of their income being reduced – this, in my view, is completely unacceptable.

Then you have the “Localising Council Tax” scheme, which should really be called the “Localising the blame for the Coalition’s failed economic policy” scheme. In Medway, we will see 14,000 receiving Council Tax bills they simply cannot afford. Again, those affected include people with caring responsibilities, the disabled and those working on poverty wages.

The last time we had a Conservative government we saw the Poll Tax, a scheme which meant people were sent bills that they could not afford. In my view, it is no exaggeration to state this change really is the Poll Tax Mark Two, people will be making the choice between paying this unfair bill or buying food for their household.

Although Medway is often seen as the home of Charles Dickens, you wouldn’t expect to see us return to Dickensian conditions, but with close to 2000 people in Medway already having to use our local food bank that is the frightening reality. Sadly from that 2000 many are children which again shows the human impact of these coalition government changes.

Those two changes are not in isolation though; if you are disabled, you have the Government’s changing the Disability Living Allowance to the so called Personal Independence Payment which saw 172 out of 173 disabled rights groups when consulted state changes will not help empower disabled people but actually condemn them to a more isolated life.

Remember at the same time these changes come in, we will see the coalition government giving a £40,000 a year tax cut to millionaires across Kent and Medway. Those same millionaires, if they live by themselves, will continue to also get a 25% discount in their council tax. I don’t think most reasonable people would see that as us all being “in it together”.

Politics is often about priorities. It is quite clear to me, that when it comes to the changes which will have such a negative impact, the government has its priorities wrong.

Words: Vince Maple (Leader of the  Medway Labour Group)
Pictures: Stroodlights

The aim was to record a set of songs which had something of the flavour of the decade they called swinging. Each song was to be different from the last – just like records used to be.

For Prangnell’s follow up, he’s recruited Cardiff based Suzi Chunk for singing duties. And with such a prominent role, it’s only fair her name should be on the tin.

Otherwise though, Girl From The Neck Down features more of the same. Or, to be more precise: more of the different. The Prangnell-penned album uses old and new members of 2011’s collective such as Bruce Brand (former Pop Rivet, Milkshake and Kravin’ “A” – more on this later) and Ben Jones to produce a diverse collection of songs you’ll swear you’ve heard before but – with a couple of possible exceptions – you certainly haven’t.

And so we are treated to the jaunty sing-a-long sound of the title track, a tune which could happily sit on a ‘Help’ or ‘Hard Day’s Night’ era Beatles album (had it featured Duane Eddy’s twang laden guitar). It is a complete contrast to ‘Wish Away The Moon’, a pondering, lingering acoustically driven song designed to sooth the most troubled of souls.

This is followed by the smooth bossa nova of ‘Probably Normal’ with a whimsical, wandering flute accompaniment. Elsewhere the lovelorn ballad ‘No Stone Unturned’ is a perfect showcase for Chunk’s excellent vocals in which she more than ably channels the spirit of Dusty Springfield.

It’s a perfect counter to the vitriolic ‘For The Millionth Time’, the album’s opener, which comes complete with funky, swaggering guitars (think The Spencer Davis Group’s ‘Keep On Running’) and brass – and no little humour (‘for the millionth time will you stop exaggerating!’).

While most of the songs on Girl From The Neck Down have not been recorded before, Prangnell has dipped into his back catalogue of songs from his previous bands (he was The Kravin’ “A”s with Bruce Brand after The Offbeats came to an end). The results are fresh arrangements of ‘Got Any Mantras, previously featured on the ME1 compilation album with a different Groovy Uncle line-up, and ‘Look Back And Laugh’ which The Kravin’ “A”s originally featured on their ‘Krave On’ album.

The re-arrangements mean a move away from Lennon-ish snarls to whirls of organ driven psychedelia on the former and a distancing from the heavy McCartney-isms in favour of a more rounded Groovy Uncle sound on the latter.

Girl From The Neck Down is a perfectly crafted album. Much more than a tribute album to the sound of the 1960s, it is simply an excellent pop record.

They don’t make ‘em like that anymore? You couldn’t be further from the truth.

Suzi Chunk – Facebook / MySpace

Words: Stephen Morris