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Subscribe to Gonzo Weekly http://eepurl.com/r-VTD Subscribe to Gonzo Daily http://eepurl.com/OvPez Gonzo Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/287744711294595/ Gonzo Weekly on Twitter https://twitter.com/gonzoweekly Gonzo Multimedia (UK) http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/ Gonzo Multimedia (USA) http://www.gonzomultimedia.com/ Gonzo Daily Blog https://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/ LEST WE FORGET John Brodie Good Dave McMann Mick Farren 3 only do we not know how long it’s going to last, but we have no real idea of how the world is going to look when we all eventually come out of isolation. A lot of the people that I ‘know’ on Twitter are still in a state of of utopian idealism, claiming that this is the final death knell for World Capitalism. Others are depicting the advent of a nasty Orwellian police state in which all of our civil liberties will go out the window, and the United Kingdom becomes something akin to Belarus. Me? I’m not going to make any predictions at all. We still have months of this lockdown to Dear friends, go, and – no doubt – the situation will change many times before we are finally allowed out Welcome to another issue of this ever to associate freely. peculiar magazine. I don’t need to tell you that everybody on this planet is currently However, I will just say that it is quite affected by the biggest crisis for at least a gratifying that the idea of anti-Capitalism, generation. For those of us in the UK, it is the which I have been espousing all my adult life, biggest crisis since the end of the Second has finally become part of a mainstream World War and quite possibly longer, and not agenda. Whether or not it happens, and I doubt it shall, it is still gratifying. 4 A lot of the people that I ‘know’ on Twier are sll in a state of of utopian idealism species re-emerges and starts causing havoc But, let’s change the subject. again, it does prove that the radical anti- One thing is becoming self evident. And that carbon initiative proposed by people like is that even when people are taken out of the Extinction Rebellion are not as unfeasible as equation for a matter of weeks, Mother one would have thought a couple of months Nature does a remarkable job of repairing ago. There are hardly any aeroplanes in the herself. Initially, I thought that the news sky, and hardly any cars on the road. The stories that I read about the Venetian canals number of animals whose lives have been being full of clean water in which one could saved by not becoming roadkill can only be see fish swimming, and – according to some marvelled at. reports – dolphins playing and upon which, The idea of ‘Earth as Organism’ or the ‘Gaia one could see swans gliding majestically, Hypothesis’ have been cornerstones of were all hoaxes. But then the stories started Fortean thinking for about a century now, and to appear on reputable news sites, like the – whether or not you believe them – it is BBC, and it became clear that there was at tempting to apply them to our current global least a modicum of truth behind them. predicament. It is a lovely idea that a self- Satellite photographs of China and Italy show aware Gaia produced the novel coronavirus in that the ever present air pollution, order to keep human beings at bay, and allow particularly nitrogen dioxide, has dissipated, herself time to recover. When this is all over, I and although it is obvious that these things hope that this will give us a little more time are going to be only temporary before our on top of the ten years that climate scientists 5 say that we have left in order to make only addressed the subject a few years later, significant changes to our carbon emissions. to a different publication. In the last issue, you will, I think, remember As an aside, here: I have always been mildly that I was talking about a moral conundrum disturbed by the way that overt displays of about whether it was permissible to listen to the Union flag or of the British Cross of St. the music by someone who was, to a greater George are seen as racist, when Americans all or lesser extent, a dick. All of us can be dicks; I over the world display the stars and stripes at am not immune. Just ask my first wife. But the slightest provocation, and every Irish pub my dickness is very mild compared to the in the world has the Irish tricolour boldly activities of people cited in last issue’s displayed upon it. But that is another editorial, such as Genesis P’Orridge, and Gary question, and probably one for another day. Glitter. And the alleged dickness of the late Michael Jackson. More recently, Mozza has been pissing people off by his support of a very minor right It is incontrovertible that Steven Patrick -wing political party, called ‘For Britain’- Morrissey, who – despite only being three which was started by Anne-Marie Waters, an months older than me, to the day – has sold anti-Islam activist, and one time associate of more records than I could ever have the egregious Tommy Robinson - and has dreamed of, has courted controversy been subsequently seen wearing the badge throughout his career. During the 1980s, as of this group, both on television and on stage. frontman of The Smiths, he inhabited a fashionably left-wing and artistically Over to those jolly nice people at Wikipedia: revolutionary place in popular culture. He “In June 2019 Morrissey rejected accusations espoused animal rights, radical of racism against him, saying, "The word is vegetarianism, and called for the then Prime meaningless now. Everyone ultimately Minister, Margaret Thatcher, to be prefers their own race—does this make decapitated on the guillotine. everyone racist?" In response to his recent But as the band broke up, and his solo career political comments, fellow singer-songwriter took shape, some of his songs, for example, Billy Bragg accused Morrissey of dragging the ‘Bengali in Platforms’ and ‘National Front legacy of Johnny Marr and the Smiths Disco’, caused many people to question his "through the dirt". However, Nick Cave wrote stance on the subject of racism. This was an open letter defending Morrissey's right to compounded by an appearance at the freedom of speech to voice his beliefs, as well Madstock festival in Finsbury Park, where he as arguing that his musical legacy should be appeared wrapped in a Union flag, during a kept separate from his political opinions.” song called ‘Glamourous Glue’. The mounting Now, Morrissey has a new album out. It is abuse forced Morrissey to walk out after only called ‘I Am Not a Dog on a Chain’ and it is the nine songs. The mess was discussed strongest album he has made in many years. considerably in the UK music papers (notably In fact, although I have only had a few days to the NME who appeared to be out to get him get my head around it, I think it is his best at the time) during the following weeks, even since ‘Ringleader of the Tormentors’ back in months, adding even more fuel to the 2006. Yeah, it’s that good. rumours of Morrissey being racist. The singer never gave in to the pressure, he actually It is easily his most experimental album, and boycotted the publication for 12 years and 6 sees him inhabiting a strange new world of Why is it, therefore, that all the reviews I have electronica, which even borders on the avant found are lukewarm, at best? Over to the garde. I listened to it twice the other night, Wikipedians again: lying in bed in the dark, whilst fighting Archie “I Am Not a Dog on a Chain currently holds a for the quilt, and doing my best not to disturb score of 64 out of 100 on review aggregator Corinna, who had gone to sleep before me. Metacritic based on eight reviews. Josh This is very much an album that needs to be Modell of The A.V. Club gave the album a B− listened to on headphones, and in that and felt that the lyrical content was the strange headspace in which you find yourself weakest but that Morrissey displayed in the hour or so before you go to sleep, it songcraft and "a great vocal performance". sounded magnificent. I listened to it the next The editorial staff of AllMusic gave the album day on the office hifi and it still sounded 3.5 out of five stars, with reviewer Stephen fantastic. 7 Morrissey, Sam Wilkinson. Kev Rowland, Alan Dearling, Adam Thomas Erlewine summing up his review by Smith, Friday Night Progressive, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, calling the album "one of the better latter- The Merrell Fankhauser Show, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Bob Andy (ne Keith Anderson CD), Mirna Doris (née day Morrissey records" but decrying how Annunziata Chiarelli), Delroy Washington, Bert Olav Holmquist, Martin MBE (born William Wylie MacPherson), Joe Logan "placid and complacent he's been for the Diffie, Alan Merrill (born Allan Preston Sachs), Paravai Muniyamma, Jan Howard (born Lula Grace Johnson), Louie better part of a decade". Mina Tavakoli of “L.A.” Kouvaris, Wallace Roney, Clementino Rodrigues (better Pitchfork rated the album 6.1 out of 10 and known by the nickname Riachão), Louise Ebrel, Rafael Berrio, Cristina Monet Zilkha (née Monet-Palaci), Bhai Nirmal Singh called it "frequently ridiculous, mildly Khalsa, Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr., John Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli, Adam Lyons Schlesinger, Patrick Francfort (aka Patrick Gibson), captivating, and occasionally repetitive, Alex Harvey (born Thomas Alexander Harvey), Helin Bölek, Karuranga Virgile (aka as DJ Miller), Alexander George Thynn, pocked by moments of goofiness that come 7th Marquess of Bath, Rick Wakeman, Gerry Beckley, The from the runoff of a man eager to chase old Waterson Family, The Fall, Richard Wright and Dave Harris - Zee, Chasing the Monsoon, Tony Henderson, Addyction, The miseries and find new ones to berate".