Blowin Weekly Extra

9-10pm Sunday 24 April 2011

Blowin online http://blowin.podomatic.com

BCB 106.6 FM and www.bcbradio.co.uk

Near Wycoller

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for Steve

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We were talking about what we did on the last royal parasite wedding day, in 1981. I vaguely remembered the pubs being open all day, an extraordinary event then. We trotted round Manningham via a series of pints in pubs that no longer exist or have become sari shops or halal butchers. Elsewhere, Jon was twitting around on his mate’s motorbike and Chris was in Sudan blissfully unaware.

Ben had a different tale:

“The Wednesday of 29 July 1981 is etched on my memory because it was the night my brother and sister were arrested for civil disobedience during the notorious South African Springbok Rugby Tour of New Zealand.

A group of students, including my brother and sister, broke into the New Zealand Rugby Football Union’s Wellington HQ and tossed the upcoming Wellington Test tickets out the window before barricading themselves in. They were then arrested.

Meanwhile on the streets of the capital riot police were unleashed on non-violent protestors attempting to march on Parliament, which was debating the already divisive SA tour. After pushing the police lines back the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ riot squads were set on the unarmed and peaceful demonstrators. They proceeded to indiscriminately smash the front few rows of the march in the head with their new PR24 US batons*.

Men, women, children were beaten. Blood on the street. Nice. I was on the edge of the demo that night, but it was too heavy for me so I went home for my tea. I was 16 years old.

Oh yes, the wedding was on TV, at about 11pm NZ time, but after I took the call from the Central Police Station saying my siblings had been arrested we weren’t paying much attention. To this day I’m afraid I so dislike the Afrikaans/Boers. It’s an irrational racist part of me.

After 29 July “the Tour” (as it was known) got really nasty. Attempts to disrupt the games were met with a solid line of police brutality and barbed wire. We used to spend our Saturdays playing cat and mouse with the police, practicing mass disobedience by blocking motorways and roads in advance of the 2nd Test.

The 3rd Test in Auckland, the final game, was where it got really bad. A light plane dive-bombed the players and felled a couple of them with flour bombs. Almost got the game cancelled. On the streets outside Eden Park there were full-blown riots.

Opposition to the Tour was a no-brainer – we knew all about the evil of apartheid: J. Vorster, P.W. Botha, Pik Botha, Danie Craven and the rest of the vicious racist (Afrikaans) National Party, not to mention SWAPO, ANC, MPLA etc.

We had to stand up and be counted as opposers of apartheid. That bit was easy. Confronting what the Pakeha (Dutty Babylon, i.e. the British Crown) had done to the Maori in Aotearoa (NZ) was another matter. And another story.”

www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/1981-springbok-tour/tour-diary

*From Wikipedia: “Side-handle batons have been involved in high-profile incidents of alleged police brutality, such as in New Zealand‘s 1981 Springbok Tour[4][5] and the Rodney King beating. In the New Zealand instance new techniques of use were developed for crowd control. These techniques attracted the interest of the police forces of certain South American countries of the time who sent un-official observers to learn these techniques.”

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Music Junkie:

Lesson 1 – vinyl is extremely heavy, specially when moving house.

Mp3s suddenly (and temporarily) rule.

Here’s a film (and a nice tune) starring some vinyl

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Blowin

24 April 2011

Steinski – Lesson 3 (History of Hip Hop) – What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective 2xCD – Illegal Art

Candy McKenzie – Long Enough – Return Of Sound System Scratch CD – Pressure Sounds – www.pressure.co.uk

Magazine – Stuck – The Correct Use Of Soap CD – Virgin

Ranking Dread – Shut Me Mouth – Greensleeves 12”

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan – Jiya Dhadak Dhadak Jaye – Sufis At The Cinema: 50 Years Of Bollywood Qawwali & Sufi Song 1958-2007 2xCD – Saregama

Tamikrest – Dihad Tedoun Itran – Toumastin CD – Glitterhouse

Autechre – 6852 – promo download

Big Brother & the Holding Company – Ball And Chain – Cheap Thrills CD – Columbia

Bim Sherman – Why Won’t You Come On + Version – Trojan 12 Inchers 3xCD – Trojan

More at www.rob-walsh.co.uk

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Keep Blowin

Rob

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