2016 the end of a roller coaster ride

     There are many reviews published at the end of each year and this is yet another, hopefully this will be slightly different but probably not.

Many will say that 2016 was a horrible year with the loss of so many celebrities etc whilst others will say its fantastic because of unlikely events like Leicester winning the premiership and the medal haul brought back from Rio. What I think is 2016 changed the world and will have an impact for many years to come.

just touching on some of the year's events,

Brexit - the people of the United Kingdom voted for a myriad of reasons to leave the EU, for some it was about sovereignty of decisions, for some it was immigration, for some it was about spending on services to be honest now the reasons for people voting are somewhat irrelevant as we will be leaving the EU. 2017 will be the year that Great Britain starts the leaving process and the media will be full of "We don't want a Hard Brexit" as if we are on both sides of the negotiating table..
 Despite all that this single event will change the way we all live in the Uk and has began a new epoch of excitement and adventure.

USA Election - Well if you want to be schooled in electioneering there are a few people in recent history to look at, there's Ken Livingstone who showed us how to galvanise the minority voters and now there's a new kid on the block, Donald Trump. Now that was a lesson in electioneering, As I've said before he appealed to every insecurity possible in almost the complete opposite way to Obama who went along the Livingston method when elected.
    Donald Trump has some interesting things going on, he has a different approach and is even friends with Putin, Farage and Piers Morgan. Trump is the one to watch for excitement and more change, link this with Brexit and we have a recipe that will certainly herald changes.

Both of the 2 above events showed a shift in public desire and can be passed off by a number of excuses but the one thing that Farage and Trump managed to achieve was to send a message to all politicians that its time to reconnect with the populace. I think this message may need to be spread wider with the financial sector and media often writing the narrative whilst the normal person wanders round nervous.

Rio Olympics - another Olympic games that started with speculation as to whether the venues will be ready and health scares, then of course there was the the Russian Doping scandal. For Team GB this games and paralympics was a fantastic success and will build of the 2012 legacy.
  The opportunity that sporting success brings us is to make our sport hero's not only household names but true inspirations and for me there have been a few events that 2016 has brought us which show our athletes need care a nurturing outside the training and performance in their events. here I refer to use of social media as well as supporting grass routes and remembering the journey they have been on and support others in theirs. many athletes are simply not media savvy and they must be helped to not only achieve their sporting best but also the inspirational pedestal that others will aim for.

Who will win the F1 championship this year ? New Cars, no Nico, hm mm... I'm still saying a red bull shock may be worth a bet.

New Pound Coin - wow 12 sided coin with a hologram, this is an exciting prospect for 2017, I remember the pound note going and the pound coin coming in. One of the soap powder companies ran a promotion in which you could get a framed £1 note, I wonder how many people with still have that?

so to conclude. all of the above have given exciting opportunities for 2017 so what should we do. My thoughts are simple, lets try to be nice. I have a rant stored about prejudice but that can wait until another day for now but we should all take the first day of the year and think what do my actions thoughts and comments mean and where did they come from?

enjoy 2017 go out a grab it with both hands and make it happen.

2016 The year the music died

                It is common knowledge that 3rd February 1959 was the day the music died with the loss of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, That day immortalised by the lyrics of Don Mclean's American Pie.
                 The following morning as the lyrics tell us Don shivered at every newspaper he delivered on his paper round on a cold February morning, delivering the news of the tragic plane and the loss of such talent. I wonder if he shivered throughout 2016 with every months headlines announcing the loss of another musician.

January - David Bowie & Terry Wogan, Paul Kantner, Jimmy Bain, Glenn Frey, Dale Griffin, Clarence Reid, Colonel Adams, Ed Stewpot Stewart, Pierre Boulez, Robert Stigwood, Paul Bley
February-  Viola Beach, John Chilton, Johnny Murphy, Vanity (Denise Matthews), Maurice White,
March - Phife Dawg, Lee Andrews, Peter Maxwell Davies, Keith Emerson, George Martin. Martin White
April - Prince, Billy Paul. Papa Wemba, Victoria Wood, Jeremy Steig, Merle Haggard, Leandro 'Gato' Barbieri,
May - John Berry, Guy Clarke,
June - Bernie Worrell, Henry McCullough,
July -  Might have had a months off, not sure
August - Rudy Van Gelder, Tom Searle, Matt Roberts,
September - Prince Buster, Jerry Heller,
October - Bobby Vee, Pete Burns, Dave Cash,
November - Leonard Cohen, Sharon Jones, Mose Allison, Leon Russell, Jimmy Young
December - George Michael, Rick Parfitt, Greg Lake

This list contains all sorts of musicians from Jazz to orchestral to composers to Radio 1 founding Dj's (3 of these) and I'm sure I've missed some. and maybe 2016 started early with Lemmy passing in late 2015.

These are just a few I have highlighted, i thinks we all know the big names and what they did.
Bobby Vee a contemporary of the buddy holly with possibly his best known turn being Rubber Ball.
Pete Burns click here to see my previous blog entry
Martin White, contribution to music was being the producer for  the Rocky Horror Picture Show
Johnny Murphy played a musician, not sure if he could play or not.
Robert Stigwood, launched the Bee Gees

Christmas day bought us the news that George Michael had passed away, aside from having some great hits the speculation over his sexuality in the 1990's seems to eclipse the artists work, and eventually an incident "outed" him. From that point on the press seemed to consider him fair game and ignoring his talent and contribution instead focusing on any misdemeanour. and now following his death we are hearing about the good charity work he performed and donated to.
Its amazing how quickly they turn. My personal view is sexuality is up to the individual and if they want to announce it they should have that right and not be "outed" by anyone else.

The viola beach story i suppose is similar to the 1959 loss, up and coming musicians torn form us in a tragic accident.

but is 2016 really the year the music died ?
Some really good new artists have seen success in 2016 and have dominated, but also there has been some interesting news with the Led Zepplin lawsuit.
Following the successful suing of Pharrell Williams by the family of Marvin Gaye for plagiarism 2016 saw a lawsuit against Led Zepplin for copying the riff in stairway to heaven. This to me was a worrying thing, I think it was one of the Gallagher brothers who when asked about the likeness of their music to the Beetles replied that its impossibly not to be influenced by great music, or words to that effect.
others encapsulated the sentiment in song lyrics, including Natasha Bedingfield with These Words -

Threw some chords together
The combination D.E.F
It's who I am it's what I do
And I was gonna lay it down for you.

I'm trying to focus my attention
But I feel so A.D.D
I need some help some inspiration
But it's not coming easily...

Tryn'a find the magic
Tryn'a write a classic
Don't you know, don't you know, don't you know?
Wastebin full of paper
Clever rhymes, see ya later

and even better put by Twenty One Pilots with Stressed Out -

I wish I found some chords in an order that is new
I wish I didn't have to rhyme every time I sang

what a challenge to create new music that isn't similar, I am really pleased that the Led Zepplin lawsuit collapsed and feel it will allow freedom for artists to be artists and influenced and inspired.

Maybe the music didn't die after all.

Maybe its in the playing of the recording that the music will always live on .....
or we should just drive to the levee and drink whiskey and Rye

Christmas, consumerism and pressure

Pre Christmas moan !!!

Nice Christmas message tomorrow 

As the last few days before Christmas fill our supermarkets with crazed shoppers desperate to buy enough food to last the Christmas Day closure for the next 5 years and the stores remove Christmas stock before it's even happened I had a moment to think yesterday about the pressure we/they put us under.

I use my local Morrisons as a local shop due to its proximity. This last weeks it's just got hellish, queuing for 15-20 minutes at the tills to pay for a loaf of bread!!!! What !!! Are we in some collapsing communist eastern block country. No wait it's just the hoards desperate for Christmas cheer stored in out of season food and booze, and let's not forget for this week only bulk food shopping is a family activity so each trolley is now accompanied by both parents and 2.4 children all throughly fed up of the supermarket. I just want to pay for my loaf of bread oh and buy extra wrapping paper which has been replaced with mini eggs at Morrisons !!

Ok supermarket rant over for now, I will save my rant about being accused of shop lifting by a computer ever time I try to adjust my shopping or the computer can't work out why the weight of a 7kg bag of charcoal is 7kg. And the carefully chosen voice exclaim "unexpected item in the bagging area, are you stealing form us you untrustworthy human"... sorry I said I'd save that rant.

The discussion about commercialisation of Christmas and the increasing pressure to spend is not a new one and dates back to the Victorian era. I'm not talking about a feast here I fully support the tradition of Christmas dinner with a roast bird etc I fully support decorations, and I fully support the giving of gifts and cards to loved ones.  What I worry about is the need to spend a fortune and the behaviour that causes.

Do we really need the spend or is there more to it. Do we really need to beg borrow or steal, some will feel there have no option some will not know any different. Over the last few years I've seen people I know or know of struggling to pay off last years Christmas debt and borrowing for the next Christmas with a higher interest lender. I seen 'houses broken into' and crisis loans and claims made after. And the world carries on blinded by the Christmas lights.

Everyone's hearts bleeds to genuine stories of loss at Christmas and it's those families that I think we should look at for strength.

A few years ago we had a skint Christmas, one of those where unexpected events mean you've  spent any reserves and it's a general strain to make ends meet and achieve children's dreams on Christmas morning. That Christmas was amazing we had a great time together as a family and the lack of spend on presents was barely noticed, thank the lord for seconds hand items. The gift of Christmas for me is family. (Tomorrow's blog entry will be about my family memories) 

This year as with any year as we get closer to Christmas focus turns from the kids I what to buy each other, me for my wife and my wife for me. As ever the question is what do you want for Christmas and the realisation that I've missed the hints and bought something else.

 When my wife asked me what I'd like I thought for a while and decided rather than spending £50-£100 on me I would rather we had a family day out together. And so we did. Which is a rarity for our household. Not only did I enjoy it but so did they and that meant so much more than an item in wrapping paper, the family together having fun enjoying and celebrating life together. Isn't this what's it's about? The giving of a gift not the present within the wrapper?

I really enjoyed looking at the families faces on Thursday, we had a great day out! 

I managed to have a couple of moments thought yesterday and the chance to catch a few of my children sitting at the dinning room table, so I asked the question

    "What was your main present last Christmas?"

Well the answers varied and took a while, I'm still not convinced they actually knew or remembered the main present we had sourced 12 months ago. 

Right rant over ! As I'm sitting in a separate room from my family as I write this, oh the irony

Questions to any reader

 "what was your main present last year "

 "What was the best thing about Christmas last year?"

Merry Christmas all !!!!!

Post publishing addition.

I know someone who when short of cash near Christmas will go quiet and avoid us, then when finally pinned down will say they feel bad because they want to give the kids £10 for Christmas, I tell them every year! Don't give them £10 just buy them a selection box and smile