7 Days 3 November 1971

1Man is always Selfish' You can’t change Human Nature Geoffrey Nowell Smith analyses such proverbial wisdom and concludes Common Sense is always Reactionary

Correct ideas, says Mao Tse-tung, do not criterion o f how things fit with the ways of. Robinson Crusoe the class sense o f the petty bourgeoisie fall from the sky: they are formed by social looking at the world that the present phase The original concept o f common sense was Common sense, then, retains the class character practice. What is true of correct ideas holds of class society has inherited from the based on the belief that there exists an imprinted on it from the outset. As a philosophy it also for ideas in general. No ideas fall from preceding one. understanding of the world which is “ common” in is also bolstered up by academic philosophers. In the sky. They are all rooted in given the sense o f natural to everybody. It was part o f the eyes of English philosophical orthodoxy historical situations. They all represent, or Popular thinking the belief in Universal Reason, the ideology of a especially, common sense is the H oly Grail o f This may seem a brutal way o f stating the reflect, certain forms of past or present class that was contesting the “irrational” truth itself. The world is as it must be. It can only question. After all common sense does consist, at be as the English language (as spoken in O xford) practice. But the relationship is often a institutions o f Church and King. It was also part least in part, o f the popular thinking o f the and parcel o f eighteenth-century individualism and tells us that it is. Every mystified formulation that complex or confused one, and rarely as oppressed in opposition to the ideologies o f their has crept into the English language to describe a simple as the case pin-pointed by Mao oppressors. A philosophy of common sense has • bourgeois reality, as seen by the bourgeoisie, is Tse-tung as the ideal: correct ideas in a also served a positive function historically in the sanctified as for ever inviolate. The idea that the correct social practice. battle against the worst forms of reaction, notably world appears to us as it does only as a result o f a Marxists have often seen the ideological struggle at the time o f the French Revolution and in early long process of integrating various forms of in terms o f a wrestling match. On the left, in the radical thought in Britain. thinking about the world into a single fabric of But was it common sense, as we understand the red corner, dialectical materialism; and on the language, and that this fabric may have to be torn term today, that had this positive role? And is this right. .. This is a fallacious and dangerous image. apart to allow new conceptions to develop, has The enemy o f a theory or a doctrine is never a so-called “ common sense” really to be identified never been heard of in those bastions of reaction. rival or competing theory but is the world o f social with the thinking o f the people in rebellion against Common sense is good enough for them, so it can practice in which that theory is rooted. The battle oppression? In a historical perspective, the answer be good enough for the people too. o f ideas can be engaged at a refined level, one must be no. theory against another. But this is only a minute We tend to think o f common sense as a Mirror of society aspect o f the struggle. For in general the enemy permanent feature o f our thinking about the Common sense is neither straightforwardly the camp is composed not o f one theory but of world. But this is true only the extent that there class ideology of the bourgeoisie nor the several. Furthermore these are not so much have always been forms of popular thinking and spontaneous thinking of the masses. It is the way a theories as such but ways o f thought formed from these forms have rarely been revolutionised but subordinate class in class society lives its have gradually evolved into each other, shedding a mixture o f different elements which serve to subordination. It is the acceptance, by the some beliefs and adding some new ones. But the connect these theories to a day-to-day practice. The street-promenade. The gentleman gives the subordinate class, o f the reality o f class society content of these beliefs has changed, and will lady the inside of the walk. seen from below. As soon as the exploited realise continue to do so. In the seventeenth century it Roots of religion that their oppression is not a natural fact but was common to believe in witchcraft and to Marx himself was well aware o f the complexity o f the belief in a “ natural man” who, if left to appears as natural only through the medium of a believe that the sun went round the earth. Both o f the situation. His critique o f religion is a case in himself and uncorrupted by existing social forms, mystifying use o f language — common sense — beliefs were reasonable ones. They provided a point. Marx saw religion not as an arbitrary, would automatically develop the right ideas about they challenge it. Why is it common sense that a more plausible explanation o f the world than did metaphysic dreamed up by some armchair the world. But just as Robinson Crusoe, on his capitalist “ deserves” a return on money invested, the available alternatives. But neither belief was philosopher, nor as an ingenious deception desert island, “ spontaneously” develops a when capital as such in point o f fact produces abandoned without a struggle on the part o f the exercised by the ruling class on the masses, but as nothing? Why is it the case that women “ must” be defenders o f the old conception, and it took a long primitive capitalist mentality, so both Universal a form o f thought which had deep roots in the time for new scientific conceptions, developed in Reason and “ natural man” acquired from the start ‘‘feminine”, when the attributes of so-called spontaneous experience o f the mass o f the people. opposition to common sense, to be integrated into a distinctly middle-class character. femininity bear only the most tenuous relation to The combination o f elements which go to make up ordinary thinking and become part o f the common It is not just that the content o f common sense the biological datum of being a woman? These are religious thought has its origins ultimately in the sense of the latter world. beliefs belonged to the middle class. The fact is, indeed “ facts of common sense” because they real world. Religion is one o f the ways in which only the bourgeoisie could have invented such a have a certain validity as a mirror of the way people live in an illusory relationship with reality, concept. For the bourgeoisie is the only class in society operates. But no class conscious worker or the illusory “ spiritual aroma” o f a contradictory As we Sow, we Shall Reap. history for whom individualism is an article of Inember of women’s or gay liberation could world. faith and which has a vested interest in seeing itself submit to them as truth. To paraphrase what Marx The religious aroma has for the most part in individual rather than class terms and thus as originally wrote about religion, the struggle against (Festival of Light notwithstanding) been the embodiment o f all mankind. common sense is indirectly the struggle against the deodorised by advanced industrial capitalism. The From the outset the abstract and individualistic world o f which common sense is the passive struggle against religion is no longer the necessary conception o f common sense ran headlong into a reflection. starting point o f cultural revolution. Platitude, not contradiction. What the eighteenth century We have to struggle against language, against its mystery, is the present enemy o f critical and mistook for universal common sense had no well-worn metaphors about black and white, scientific thinking, and o f a revolutionary practice. correspondence with actual thinking. The masculine and feminine, noble and common. Even Religion has been replaced by common sense. development of thought is a social phenomenon more we have to fight common sense with a and not the product o f an encounter between a conception of the world which is radically Everyday ideas and No Nonsense disembodied mind and a previously unthought- antagonistic to everything common sense stands But the lesson o f Marx’s critique of religion Poverty, Squalor, Intemperance and Crime. about reality. The mind is not just a blank sheet for. should not be overlooked. Nor should the on which the truths o f “ common” sense can be connection between religion and common.sense as; imprinted. The common sense that the bourgeoisie Down with Common Sense it was implied by Marx and more explicitly exalted was what they considered “ reasonable” . It is a great mistake to think that common sense developed by the Italian marxist, Antonio will reform itself on its own. The heroic days are Gramsci. Common sense is so often invoked as ‘Stand on Your Own Two Feet’ long past when common sense could be seen as the being the ultimate no-nonsense conception of Part o f the ambiguity inherent in this concept language o f progressive values against the mystique things, ilien to all forms o f religious and o f common sense has survived to this day, though of feudalism, and as the language o f science against metaphysical speculation, that the association may in a form that is far less heroic. On the one hand the abstruseness o f philosophy. Common sense is at first sight appear surprising. But in fact not only common sense means a form o f pragmatic always to be the lowest common denominator of does religious thinking have its origins in the reasoning based on direct perception of the world what people can collectively believe. It integrates common sense o f a particular world, but it' has in and opposed to all form o f thought that lack this turn acted on common sense, so that our present those features of scientific and progressive direct link with experience. On the other hand it everyday conceptions contain all sorts o f elements thinking which have become “ acceptable” . It is •There is in fact no such thing as an universal means whatever understanding o f the world which are in fact speculative and mystical rather now for example common sense to believe that the common sense, valid at all times and places. Not happens .to be generally held. The tw o meanings than realistic and scientific. earth goes round the sun. Our social conceptions only does the content o f popular beliefs change, if comes nearest to converging in the mentality o f Common sense is fundamentally have also changed. But there is always an area in only slowly, but the concept that we have that the person for whom ancient folk wisdom’ also which science will be in advance of and in reactionary. The key to common sense is these popular beliefs somehow make up “ common that the ideas that it embodies are not so represents an adequate — vehicle for coming to contradiction to the apparent truth of common sense” is itself a recent development and one terms with the world. But even at this level there is sense. much incorrect as uncorrected and taken which has also changed its-form in the course of for granted. Common sense consists o f all an element of hideously crude class mystification The philosophers have only interpreted the ,the last two centuries. What we now believe about present. When Heath calls on industry to “ stand world, in various ways: the point is to change it.” those ideas which can be tagged onto common sense, where it begins and ends and how on its own two feet” he is expounding the Science alone cannot teach us where we are misled existing knowledge without challenging it. it stands in relation to other forms of thinking, is philosophy of laissez faire capitalism but in terms by appearances. We must learn how to contest the It offers no criterion for determining how in fact a product of a particular class ideology of things are in capitalist society, but only a which have a resonance in popular thinking, a built-in truths o f language every tim e w e pick up a the eighteenth century. gritty unimaginative common sense which is also pen or open our mouths.

17 7 Days 3 November 1971 Scoop, Scandal & Strife

It is encouraging to see an exhibition o f the pictures come from scheduled which focuses attention on the events where something went wrong or problems and achievements o f the news something unexpected happened. The photographer. News photographers are photographer was there already for usually expected to take second place, another reason. Arthur Bassett was at both to news writers and to other kinds Tattenham Corner for the 1913 Derby of photographer. Prestige photography when Emily Davison jumped in front of tends to rely on technical preparation the King’s horse and brought it down. and finesse or on a good eye for The photographer was there for the composition. The news photography zeppelin when it caught fire. He was needs different kinds o f skills. A bad there for Lee Harvey Oswald when Jack photograph may still get by if it gets the Ruby brushed past and shot him or for picture. A good photograph is likely to the signing o f the armistice with Vichy be cropped anyway. ‘Scoop, scandal and when Hitler danced a jig. Erich strife’, as the exhibition is titled, was Salomon, the inventor o f the ‘candid first organized by the Welsh Arts camera’ in the twenties, made it his Council. N ow it has come to London, business to be at every important where it can be seen at the Photo­ diplomatic meeting he could with his grapher’s Gallery in Great Newport Ermanox, the first really lightweight Street, o ff Charing Cross Road. It camera. He got there by hook or by contains not just stills but newspaper crook. His son recalls that, when he was pages to show the place o f photographs a child, for years he suspected his father in layout. As well as this, the photo­ must be a house-breaker. Salomon’s A gipsy runs alongside King George the F ifth ’s Carriage at Epsom in 1926 (Central Press Photos) graphs in the exhibition have been speciality, though, was not the cata­ sure there were no rivals on board. bases this on the advent o f TV, which, in a glance, and gather the meaning o f a published in book form, with some strophic or extraordinary moment, but Instantaneous photo-journalism has though still in its box-and-tripod stage, story in more depth. Second, the still useful introductory reminiscences and the off-guard, the instant when the rich had a variety of effects. One is the is certain to get less technically cumber­ image can imprint itself on the memory articles, valuable on the technical and powerful relaxed their self-control. ‘shrinking world’ phenomenon. Another some and able to compete more and more effectively than the moving aspects o f photography and design. Salomon looked for the smirk o f is the personalization o f the news. Every more with the still photographer. I do sequence, especially if it is more than a The exhibition covers press photo­ triumph or the complicit meeting of name is given a face and we are used to not believe this need be true. Since the record o f events and has an emblematic graphy from its beginnings at the end o f eyes. seeing those faces full o f expression, time o f cave-paintings people have tried force. Pictures must carry meanings as the last century through to the present News photography has aimed at the whether grief, greed or anger. In a way, to tell a story with still pictures. It may well as catching moments. day, to pictures o f Ulster and Vietnam. instantaneous. This is why Robert this is misleading. The news gives us our be that the epoch o f the single news Although the show is historical, it Capa’s picture o f a Republican soldier grasp o f day-to-day politics and politics photograph is coming to an end. But completely avoids nostalgia. There is being killed during the Spanish Civil War is not entirely about people. It is about there are endless untapped possibilities Scoop, Scandal and Strife. nothing ‘camp’ about it at all. There is is so famous. He catches the instant o f economic structures, for instance, which for the picture story. Still photographs not much ‘period flavour’. This is death. Just as modern cameras make it photography finds hard to grasp and have two great advantages over TV. Edited by Ken Baynes. because most o f the pictures put across possible to be with events as they convey. The most successful pictures are First, it is possible to compare the Lund Humphries. £3.75 the critical . moment the moment happen, modern wire-service and radio those which tell us not just what it was different images in a series, to refer back which compresses everything into one technology makes it possible to get the like to be there, but also suggest what it Front page from the New York Daily News of image. They are not concerned with picture back as rapidly as written copy. meant. These' are the kind o f photo­ August 8 1970 (John Frost Collection/Dailv News.) atmosphere or with the general look o f Not long ago, getting a scoop did not graphs which could stand away from the things. There are mercifully few pictures just mean taking a picture. It meant printed page, on a poster, for instance, o f babies or animals, and only a few going to incredible lengths to get the not because o f their • formal qualities pin-ups, the sentimental and sexist picture to the press. In the book alone, but because o f their content too. stock-in-trade o f most editors. It is the introduction one photographer describes In the catalogue to the exhibition, news which counts. bribing a signalman to stop the Orient Tom Hopkinson, former editor of ‘Being there’ : this is the watchword. Express and then walking through the Picture Post, argues that “ the impor­ O f course, no photographer can antici­ corridor and the length o f the train, tance o f the still photograph as a news pate the news with a crystal ball. Most looking in every compartment to make medium seems certain to decline.” He Chicago Sun-Times, November 29, 1 969. A Vietnamese prisoner being thrown to his death from a US Àrmy helicopter. (J ohn Frost Coilection/Chicago Sun Times)

18 7 Days 3 November 1971

Over the Rainbow with the Fab Four by Jeff Cloves heard?) were “ All my lovin’ ” and “Till Recent bannings o f various groups controlled hysteria and we felt, there was you” — the girls were quiet distinctly out of place . . . wrong by the Albert Hall management for this one and I remember George sex, wrong age, wrong place. for either loudness or lewdness played amplified, unlike the record. have highlighted the fact that John played a fair bit o f lead, standing London has no large auditorium Faerie World aggressively with his fat legs wide apart — when he sang w e could just about devoted specifically to presenting The Astoria was one of those hear and several times he came right up rock music. With the opening o f outrageous fantasies of the early thirties: a 3000 seater with decor like a front to shout “shurrup!” at the the Rainbow Theatre at the set from Camelot. The stage is crowned screamers. (R o lf Harris read a letter former Finsbury Park Astoria this by a fairytale castle over the prescenium from a fan asking the audience not to week with two shows by the Who, arch, concealed lighting behind the scream “so everyone can hear” — it made no difference) Towards the end of the gap, it seems, could be filled. battlements and murals o f knights and the act John made no attempt to play There are signs, however, that damozels. W ow! We sat in the front row. of the circle and the din was incredible and horsed around in some sort o f the Rainbow won’t be quite the kind of Woodstock Nation institution it might be. The consortium of backers assembled by its American manager John

Morris includes three 'property Roger Perry companies and the EMI organisation. And Morris himself was schooled in concert promoting at the Fillmore East theatre in New York, whose owner Bill Graham provoked a weight of resentment among the local community by his sternly capitalistic attitude towards his job. Morris himself has been quoted as “Looking forward” to the arrival of the first bunch of “ liberators” (presumably people who feel the profits made by selling tickets should be returned to the customers in the form of — screams spiralling up from below and private joke with George but Paul was the curtain not even up. The show right there, twinkling till the end. I free concerts). And the problem featured the Epstein stable and Rolf' think they had great ‘presence’ on stage of drugs? “ I ’m going to tell the Harris was compère; The Fourmost but it’s hard to pin down quite what it audience that I’ll bust them.” It opened, as I remember, followed by was. Perhaps they each had something could be that London will have to Tommy Quickly, the youngest of different but collectively they had a sort wait a little longer for Woodstock Epstein’s ‘discoveries’, and one who of disdainful ‘cool’ which even Paul, who was clearly showbiz, shared. John Nation. In the meantime, 7 Days never really made it. Poor old Billy. J. Kramer got the bird — he turned his has since said he hated those times but I greets the new venture with an best profile to the girls but they were find it difficult to believe — he certainly account by Jeff Cloves o f the unmoved and the pennies rained down. looked as though he was enjoying finest hour of pop music at the Cilia Black was very new. She’d a minor himself, even if it was all rather absurd. old Astoria, the Beatles Christmas hit with a Lennon/McCartney song Perhaps that ‘cool’ was appropriate to their ‘star’ status but I certainly felt that Show of 1963. “The Love Of The Loved” but these were the days before “ Anyone who had they were no longer within touching All this stuff about The Rainbow a heart” and she was just a skinny mod distance o f their fans. Maybe it was Theatre... all this “London’s girl whose pink dress clashed, but simply that I couldn’t connect with nicely, with her red hair. She sang “ St them in the way those ecstatic jelly Fillmore-rock Mecca of Loius Blues” and I liked her a lot. babies could — it was as though I’d gone U.K.” . . . I went to “The Beatles to a cup final but my team weren’t Christmas Show” at The Finsbury Lovable Rolf playing. The show revealed what I Duke D’Mond and The Barron Park Astoria (as it was then) back hadn’t known before — The Beatles Knights were great. G ood musicians and in 1963 and with all this publicity were a teeny bopper band on stage and witty too. The Duke was a throwback in in the air,memories of The Fab something else on record. What was a silver lamé suit but they certainly Four come screaming back. ultimately so disappointing was that we went down better than the other acts. One of the office girls had a just didn’t get a chance to see and hear R o lf Harris was a revelation. He sang his them as musicians — only as idols. And couple of tickets, Mike and I corny kid’s songs, shook his ‘wobble this duality was, I suspect, repeated clicked for them, parted with our board’, played a piano accordion and later in America when they became the fifteen bob (!) and set off for kept the whole package moving with darlings of the martini bopper set but Mecca. The place was swamped style and good humour. Each time he never the less made records like ‘Rubber with young girls when we arrived came on to announce a new act the Soul’ and ‘ Revolver’ . — most of them with their Mums. screams rose to fever pitch and then We were amazed at their youth; turned to wails as the ‘darlings’ delayed N o Bad Trips their appearance. In fact, ‘They’ made average age around sixteen but After the show we staggered to the two appearances in sketches in the first many fourteen and even twelve exits caught up in a swirl of delirious half. The one I remember was a ‘wicked year olds. The whole scene was fans. I remember three little girls, landlord’ sketch with George as the new to us both — our stamping thirteen at the most, running along the wronged maiden, Paul as Father, John gangway at the back of the circle, arms grounds were jazz and R and B as Sir Jasper and Ringo capered on with above their heads and squealing at least clubs here it was all sweaters torn paper snow and urged the audience ten minutes after the curtain had gone embroidered with their names, to hiss or cheer — rock revolutionaries? down — they were somewhere over the lapel badges of their faces and rainbow alright. I can’t remember any clutched copies of Beatles Those Were the Days, My Friend policemen inside the theatre, no The Beatles appeared as themselves in Monthly. I remember street Securicor men, no Angels and I doubt the second half, by which time the traders selling huge pictures with there was a joint in the place — unless it screaming was literally deafening — printed autographs, Beatle rosettes was in the changing rooms. There was when they came on I thought the two and desperate fans pleading for no violence, no bad trips and I guess girls next to me would hurl themselves “spare tickets” . Inside the foyer: most everybody there came away into the stalls. The stage was drenched bedlam. They had produced a thoroughly happy — in retrospect I in jelly babies, rings, bracelets, love wouldn’t have missed it for worlds. If sovenir programme and the girls letters and we just couldn’t hear a note The Rainbow Theatre does half as well were going dotty to get them — they played. the atmosphere was one of barely when it opens with The Who on The only songs I remember (or November 4 it’ll be doing fine.

19 7 Days 3 November 1971

Out of the Corridors into the Street The Fourth Channel Row by Nick Garnham On most modern T V sets there are four follows. We want to run a comple­ mercial system. The bread and butter o f vision was run as a public service. The be central, to be considered as a whole. buttons. Push one and you get BBC1. mentary two channel service, like BBC1 IT V is audiences watching commercials, programme companies are its creation I f a decision is taken on TV4 before Push another you get BBC2. Push the and BBC2, so that when, for instance, A complementary ITV2, as BBC2 has and have a clearly defined and limited such an Inquiry has been held, it will third and up comes IT V . But what there is a feature film on ITV1 we can shown, will take audiences away, not function — to provide programmes for effectively destroy the chance for a about that fourth button? At the schedule a documentary on ITV2, or as from the BBC, but from ITV1. As the transmission by the ITA in return for proper detailed examinatination o f the moment pressing it brings you nothing, Howard Thomas of Thames put it “if Prices and Incomes Board report on IT V the right to sell advertising time in their shape o f British Broadcasting in the but in the future it could bring you ITV1 is the Daily Express, then ITV2 stated as recently as last October. “ It is areas. But in recent weeks you might 1980s. TV 4, the fourth channel. That channel can be the Daily Telegraph”. Only with (by no means clear, given present adver- have been forgiven for thinking that the Here are some o f the questions such is, with present conservatively con­ such a service can we offer our viewers a tising trends, that there would be a net IT A had been set up by the companies an Inquiry would need to answer. trolled technology, the only space left balanced range o f choice and our pro­ financial gain to the contractors; indeed to act as their PR front. It has been 1. Do we need and can we afford a in the crowded airwaves for a television duction staff full rain to their creative no financial estimates have been put acting true to its traditional form, not as fourth channel? T V is an expensive service with national coverage. It is talents. Such a service will have to be the master, but as the slave o f the industry. A t a time when we will therefore a very scarce national asset centrally planned, therefore as we run companies. probably have to change to no-growth and, if only because it will come into all the present service we will also have to Brecht wrote in The Theory of economies in order to survive as a our homes, its use is a matter that control ITV2. Moreover because we will Radio, but it applies equally to TV,” Over TV4 the scandal o f the 1968 species, shouldn’t we be looking rather concerns us all. be able to use our spare studio capacity Radio must be changed from a means o f contracts is being repeated. Valuable at ways in which we could use the Whose cheque book do we want we can run it cheaper than anyone else. distribution to a means o f communi­ public property is being carved up in present system to greater public behind that button? In the last few On the grounds of ‘fair play’ they cation. Radio would be the most secret. The ITA has set up a joint benefit? weeks the answer to that question has also plead that because the BBC has two wonderful means o f communication working party with the Managing 2. Can we tolerate advertising as a become a matter of public concern. The channels, they must have two channels imaginable in public life, a huge linked Directors of the Big Five to coordinate means o f financing broadcasting? present tele-tycoons, especially those as well, otherwise they will be unable to system — that is to say, it would be such their campaign for ITV2 and their 3. If we are to have a two-channel who own and control the Big Five compete and so will be driven out o f if it were capable not only of trans­ Director-General, Brian Young," has system financed by advertising, this stated in writing that “ the present (Thames, London Weekend, ATV, business. What this case usefully reveals mitting but o f receiving, o f allowing the implies central planning. I f therefore the intention is not to have a public Granada and Yorkshire) want that is the basic contradiction o f the IT V listeners not only to hear but to speak, ITA is to become master in its own debate” . The operation illustrates per­ channel to be ITV 2 and they are putting system. For the companies are engaged and did not isolate him, but brought house will it not have to plan the heavy pressure on the Minister o f Posts fectly two important truths about our in a pre-emptive strike. In the early 60s him into contact. Unrealizable in this schedules and sell the advertising and Telecommunications, Christopher society. State power — mediated it was always assumed that a fourth social system, realizable in another, perhaps on a strictly rationed basis, as in through the ITA, and obsessive secrecy Chataway, to give them the go-ahead by channel would be used to create genuine these proposals, which are, after all, Germany? Christmas so that they can be on the air jointly lubricate the path to further competition within ITV, for when ITV only the natural consequences o f 4. Shouldn’t all our broadcasting with the new service by late 73 or early profits. was founded it broke one monopoly technical development, help towards the services be more closely linked to the 74. And they want as little public only to create another, an advertising propagation and shaping o f that other Questions to an Enquiry community? Couldn’t we do away with debate on that issue as possible. monopoly. The advertising industry still system . . . I f you should think this is The IT A has asked those in the the present centralized, hierarchical Public Service Rhetoric want TV4 to be used for the purpose of Utopian, then I would ask you to industry to contribute suggestions on structures in favour o f more democratic, consider why it is Utopian.” Having sucked the T V industry dry breaking this monopoly, .but o f course the running o f ITV2 to their working diverse structures, within which people for years and then invested the proceeds that is the last thing the companies party. The Federation o f Broadcasting talk to each other rather than passively in real estate or Musak, these men now want. Like all good m onopoly capita­ before us. We therefore consider the Unions have, to their credit, for jobs are consume what the few give them. want some more public property to lists they hate competition. Their main financial outcome to be too prob- desperately required in the entertain- If TV4 were to be used before such as exploit. Only 18 months ago they went interest therefore is to see that no one ments industry, refused to collaborate Inquiry, couldn’t it be used to experi­ whining to the Government for relief else gets TV4. They will even accept opening o f a second commercial hi this charade. They have urged that no ment in new areas? It is not only the from the Levy on their advertising some more public service responsibilities service.” decision should be taken-until there has IT V companies that have spare pro- revenue, a Levy imposed to limit their to stop that. The Role of the ITA been a full public Inquiry on the lines of gramme-making capacity. There already powers o f exploitation. If relief was not But it is unlikely that they will be The companies’ campaign could Pilkington. The last government ex- exists in schools and colleges the forthcoming, they hinted, poverty able to keep their promises. The history perhaps have been ignored as special tended the Television Act to 1976 so studios, cameras and video-recorders to might force them to shut up shop. Now of London Weekend shows how pleading and allowed to founder in its that it will expire at the same time as start a new type o f T V network more they are asking to run another service. specious such promises turn out to be, own contradictions, if the IT A had not the BBC Charter. The express purpose responsive to the needs o f the com­ The Companies are presenting their not because those who make them are got in on the act. The Authority was was to allow any changes in our present munities they serve. All that is needed is case dressed in the public service necessarily hypocrites and liars, but created to represent the public interest broadcasting system, to which the the provision o f transmitters to make rhetoric o f the BBC. Briefly it runs as because o f the pressures o f a com­ _and to ensure that Independent Tele- allocation o f the fourth channel would this a living reality. Seeping through the Cracks Urinal is an interesting piece of BBC features are produced), Villiers House samizdat. It is first o f all a send-up o f (educational programmes) and Palmo­ Ariel, the BBC house journal, which live House (where the Time-Life/BBC serves as the mouthpiece o f manage­ mammoth series is labouring away on the ment, registers retirements, deaths, list o f the British Empire). These dis­ promotions, presentations, staff parties contents were first expressed at the time has ceased to expand, and no longer and other BBC festivities. Like all house o f the publication o f the BBC’s plans supporters a large number o f BBC staff written and widespread expression to offers apparently unlimited oppor­ magazines it is there to foster together­ for broadcasting in the 70’s. A large — mostly from features department. the frustrations and dissatisfactions o f many o f the BBC’s staff. tunities to bright young men and ness and, while appearing to give a voice number o f radio producers took the The 76 Group was a useful forum but women, and is — as a list published in to the staff, strengthens their bonds to unprecedented step of sending a letter lacked political cohesion and so disin­ It suffers from the weakness that Urinal shows — not renewing the the organisation and management. o f protest to the Times. This was tegrated. marked the 76 Group in being almost contracts o f a good number o f them. Urinal may also provide a voice for followed by the setting up of the 76 It would not have been capable o f entirely producer/researcher orientated. But its appearance shows the organ­ The crisis o f the BBC is a financial and a the discontents which are fermenting in Group, which, although it was started as producing Urinal, which looks like a isational tensions that have been caused social one. The old certainties are gone such outposts of the BBC empire as a result o f the crisis in London Weekend guerrilla operation by people who feel by the present state o f the BBC, which both for the BBC itself and for its staff. Kensington House (where general Television, came to have among its that an attempt must be made to give

tight bundle round a live microphone, which relays Japanese experimental music for the last decade. the sound o f the paper unfolding — and a piece in Despite his eminence in Japan, he is less well- Tai Mahal Travellers by Michael Nyman which a performer gets through a normal action as known in the West than Ichiyanagi, publicised still springing up, despite the present discipline in slowly as possible. This has been done with through his association with Cage, o r Takemitsu — THE TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS, on experimental music. London’s AM M is everlasting, painstaking diligence by John Tilbury. through his favourable treatment by the record their first out-of-Japan tour make their but other groups like Musica Elettronica Viva have In the last few years Kosugi has become more companies. British début at the Young Vic on split up mainly through disagreements as to involved with electronic mixed media — only the In 1961 Kosugi founded the ‘Group Ongaku’, November 7. The Travellers (a Picnic whether they should improvise or play notated Japanese and the Americans seem able to afford the first Japanese group to put on Events and Band) are a live electronic free-improvis- pieces. But no previous improvisation group has electronic technology on a large-scale. In 1969, he Happenings. In the States during the mid-sixties he been able to match the sound o f the Taj Mahal organised the 3-day ‘Intermedia Arts Festival’ in ation group founded in Tokyo in December joined that fabled neo-dada intermedia brother­ Travellers. Tokyo and collaborated on the ‘Fantasia o f 1969. They have been performing regularly hood, Fluxus, which at times included such diverse Like so much recent Japanese music, the band Sounds and Lights’ at Expo 70 involving at free jazz and rock clubs around Japan, talents as George Brecht, Nam June Paik, La draws on both Oriental and Western traditions, 11-channel-tape music flowing through 1,000 and their sessions last anything from 20 Monte Young, Terry Riley, Dick Higgins, Yoko without compromising either. Between them, the loudspeakers. minutes to 12 hours. Last December they Ono, Jackson MacLow, and Emmett Williams. six players (plus an electronics engineer) play His live electronics usually involve close inter­ gave a concert on a beach at 0-Iso which Japanese instruments like the shakuhachi (flute), action between sound sources, air movements and ran continuously from dawn to dusk. For biwa (lute), shoh (mouth organ) and koto (zither), As Slowly As Possible the immediate environment. These systems are their indoor gigs they bring the sea with along with violin, double bass and trumpet, and O f Kosugi’s Fluxus events Cage noted that “ his portable, and the combination o f his ‘catch wave’ them in the form of ‘seascape movies’ many o f these instruments are processed electron­ music is taking the clothes o ff the theatre and continuum, acoustic and electronically modified which are screened framed by flickering ically. wearing them in a way that redignifies both arts” . instruments, should provide the British experi­ Tw o o f the best known o f these pieces are Micro I mental and rock scenes with an unprecedented lights while they play. The Taj Mahal Travellers were founded by — in which a large sheet o f paper is wrapped in a It is encouraging to see improvisation groups Takehisa Kosugi, who has figured prominently in sound experience.

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