"She's the other girl with the lovely smile". The one I can't remember the name of. The one I should have gone out with at the time. But I was shallow and I made a choice, like we all do, a lot of the time, based on fickle, fading, superficial sight. And it's not that I don't think we should appreciate beauty, or that our physical attractions aren't valid. Just that i would have been happier  at that time in my life if I'd chosen the other girl. But that was in another world.

In Another World is out on June 4th. 

 So the song opens "Boy you hit the jackpot, yeah, she was quite a crackpot". And like I said, it isn't referring to Stephanie.

I like the opening to the song, but to be honest the word crackpot doesn't sit so easily as a way to describe anyone who, if this song is anything to go by, has some mental health issues as well as an addictive personality. But what can I say? She, whoever she is, will have to be satisfied with a description befitting a mad dictator if she wants to hang around on my guitar. At least on this occasion. But she sounds quite interesting...so I might give her a more sympathetic hearing in the future. 

In Another World is out on June 4th. 

 My  song In Another World (which  I'll be putting out on the fourth of June) came about because of a wrong choice I made back in the day. There were two girls who  my mate and I used to chat with at youth club. I got on with one of the girls very well, but ended up asking the other one out because she was prettier. I can't remember the name of the girl I got on well with. The girl I asked out, and who said yes, was called Stephanie. Two weeks later she dumped me because she actually fancied my mate and thought, through some strange logic, that she'd get closer to him by going out with me. And, of course, it turned out that the other girl fancied me. Looking back I would say that I got my priorities wrong. And I feel a bit sad that I can't remember the other girl's name. 

Do we get wiser as we get older? Do we start to realise that the wrapping on the package is only wrapping? Do we get any better at making choices? Those are the sort of things I was thinking about when I wrote the song. Although the story in the song is made up. So when I sing "she was quite a crackpot" I wasn't thinking about Stephanie in particular. 

 I started with a bang but have succeeded in fizzling for a while. No More! When the album came out with such fanfare (in my own head) last year I said that there was going to be regular updates, musings, songs, and stuff...loads of stuff. But it didn't happen. Partly to do with a particularly manic year. Anyway, this is take two, and it is starting with a commitment. A commitment, mainly to myself, but also to you, the folk who were once many moons ago, and may still be, who knows,  interested in hearing my songs. 

The clue to my commitment is in the new blog title. I am going, come hell or highwater, to release an original song on the 4th of the month...forever and ever and ever. Amen. Gulp!

Truth is I've been writing at least 12 songs a year for a number of years now. The album last year was an attempt to start giving them some sort of air. But it's a far bigger logistical thang to release an album than a single song. So from now on I'm going to be releasing fairly simple, organic, acoustic, recordings of my songs. On some I may go to town more. And I might still release retrospective albums...possibly even in Vinyl! But the idea is to release regularly and often. At least that's what the doctors recommending. 

In the lead up to each months song release, I will also be trying to write daily thoughts that get provoked by the song I am about to release. Hence the title of this specific blog: In Another World. That's the title of the upcoming song. 

 I'm too much of a believer in freedom to be a full blown socialist, and I've never voted Tory. Long and short of it is that I hate party politics and I don't think that any one party could ever represent me. Nor do I believe in demonising any one party. We can learn something about ourselves (we'd be stupid not to) from even the most vile ideologys (take a bow the BNP). I don't think Cameron is as bad as Thatcher, and I don't think Thatcher was that much worse than Blair.  I don't think Clegg is evil for forming a government with the Tories. So that's my colours nailed to the mast then.  

I do believe we should be demanding greater responsibility from those who have most power and most wealth. That's why we needed, among other things, a better system of democracy than our winner takes all, first past the post system. Shame on Labour (didn't expect any better from the Tories I'm afraid) for not pushing some form of proportional representation when in power, or promoting an AV vote wholeheartedly when the chance was there recently. But I also believe that we (in the great proletariat) need to get some sort of reality check about the "something for nothing" culture that has without a doubt developed across the UK and is one of the (many) causes, I think, of the recent riots in England.

Until the last 6 or 7 years of my life I and my family were, according to governmental ways of assessing these matters, in the poverty zone. Mainly due to working in relatively low paid jobs. But this was a completely  rubbish assessment, and I always thought so at the time. We always had clothes to wear, a home to live in and food to eat. We had holidays most years. We had entertainment. Even if we lacked the amount of choices that we've got these days. I considered myself very physically lucky in the leaner times as I do today when things are a lot rosier. 

 I believed, and still believe,  in compassionate safety nets for those who have not got the ability or means to provide for themselves. I think it is the sign of a progressive, compassionate soceity. At times I've benefitted from those nets myself. But somehow we've developed a system which keeps people alive but at the same time takes away SOME  people's ability to accept responsibility for their own lives. As a result of the recent riots  this is the cry that is going out even from those who lean to the left of centre politically. Peope are understandably fuming about the recent behaviour of certain sections of certain communities. But the truth is we haven't done the perpetrators any favours by giving them, or their parents, a way of living/surviving without a certain amount of duty and responsibility, and without a sense of wider community.

I'm sure, in the current climate, something will be done to redress this balance. Let's fervently hope it isn't redressed in a crass, knee jerk, populist manner. Although, that does seem to be the sort of political mindset that thrives in the UK at the moment, from top to bottom. Anyone for getting as many freebies as possible? Anyone for higher taxes? Anyone for cutbacks? Anyone for more credtit? Our country is in a mess, and the recent riots are just a wee sign of that. Like the politicians abuse of their "extras". Like the bankers bonuses. Like our national debt. I've had it relatively easy, but I am worried about the future for my children. Only one thing is certain. Neither we or they will get something for nothing. And blaming someone else, even our frankly below par politicians, won't sort it out. 



nb Must admit always feel like a patronising, pontificating, know it all, when I talk about stuff like this. Heck, I grew up with Tiswas. If that's how I come across please forgive me, but I do think that we need to talk about these matters in a serious way. Good answers won't arrive if we don't.