To kick-start writing the chapter on Oh Bondage! Up Yours, I took a trip to Liverpool today, to look through Falcon Stuart's archive of X-Ray Spex materials at John Moore's University library.
Last time I went to Liverpool it was to play at the Cavern along with Charlie Tipper in 2017, which is a great memory to have. It's such a lovely city and the sun lit it up like a Parisian film and I hope to be doing another gig there soon, too.
A very large group of children were on the steps of the town hall chanting and campaigning for change in Government policies on global warming. They are so brave and tough and exactly what we need, because everyone has stopped listening to adults who care about the environment.
I hope they do more.
There is no point in education if there is no world; they have chosen to educate themselves by fighting for social change and civil rights. The more they annoy the authorities, the better.
The archive librarian had put two big boxes of cuttings and fanzines on the table. All I had time for was the cuttings, but they told a very interesting story. Poly had such a lot of opposition from patronising journalists who tried to outsmart her intelligence. I felt ashamed of them (I doubt very much that they felt ashamed of themselves). En masse, the journalists come across as a bunch of controlling, patronising and vicious misogynists. Poly comes across as a genius who knew exactly what they were doing but who kept going anyway.
I feel a wave of love for her, and what she achieved against such opposition.
I've come away with masses of review quotations, and I hope I do the song justice as the article develops. It was interesting to find articles in The Daily Mail and Cosmopolitan as well as the music press, and oddly they were more measured and fair in their coverage.
Back home now, and I've been rehearsing a solo version of Records and Tea by The Chefs for.....
We have all been sworn to secrecy but nobody reads this anyway, do they?
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