London: Riots to Olympics.

There are a lot of people who read this blog; I am amazed by the amount of countries it goes to – well it goes to every country, of course, but I'm amazed by the amount of countries where people read it.

For some reason, within minutes of it being published the post is read in Iowa by somebody; I know the IP address and the city and I would love to hear from them - in fact I can see where every post is read.

I never know by whom, of course; I have two counters and the one where I have all the details has the blog receiving about 40,000 hits since I started and the one which comes with the package has it nearer 50,000 hits.

This is nothing compared with Matt Drudge's blog, of course, but the post I wrote about Julian Assange has had over 5,000 hits and still attracts them even though I wrote it in December 2010.

I would like to tell all those people that no matter what you may hear or read elsewhere, London is really the place to be at the moment. There were a lot of naysayers about The Olympic Games but they are here, they are successful and they are making a lot of people happy.

It's such a friendly place to be with Britons believing they could be winners at last.

This time last year, on August 8^th in London, my daughter and her boy friend/partner/esposo were out having dinner and celebrating his birthday. His name is Chris too; no not Chris 2, Chris too – so happy birthday Chris.

As they sat there the London riots, which had broken out on August 6^th, arrived at the leafy suburb of Ealing where they were eating. My daughter was four months pregnant at the time so they cut their evening short and managed to get home safely.

Nearby a 68 year old man, well known to the locals of Ealing, tried to stamp some of the fires out and was killed by one of the participants of the so called riot. I know the perpetrator probably didn't mean to kill him but the exponential affect of a growing mob when it gets out of control can lead to anything.

Four cars were set on fire, shops and buildings in a street nearby were smashed and set on fire too. These shops were small businesses; some set up by young people who had raised the money for a deposit and borrowed the rest. There were about 150 rioters, so they say, and they also looted a branch of Tesco's for alcohol and cash. I remember seeing them on TV smashing a bookies' window.

15 of them jumped on to a bus, forced the driver out and crashed it.

We were in Edinburgh at the time and the young people of that city didn't riot at all; there was too much to do with the festival and things.

Some people from other countries, likened the riots here to the Arab Spring. It's sad when people don't know the history of the place and give wrong opinions. Two years after the Conservatives were elected last time there were riots in Toxteth, Liverpool. Police had a bad reputation there with their treatment of blacks and the sus law; the sus law allowed police to pull in anybody for questioning if they 'looked' suspicious. It was bound to happen just as it happened in Tottenham last year and spread to other boroughs and other inner cities.

Last year's riots were started after the police shot someone – I'm not going to comment on that but if you want to read more just put Tottenham Riots on Google.

But there were other young people last year who were doing something else. The rioters last year were a minority of the younger generation – to use an old phrase – but there were thousands of others who were getting ready for this year – the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games were always criticised by somebody – I remember years ago asking someone if they'd seen so and so and they said they didn't like the Olympics as they were all supposed to be amateur. Well that was okay for rich posh boys and girls who could afford to take time off to train or if you were from a country in the Communist Block who fed their athletes performance enhancing drugs and gave them time off to train.

Isn't it good to see that since there is now a real crack down on drugs and more sophisticated equipment is available to detect the cheats, that the Russians and Germans don't seem to be winning much.

And I know about the IOC and the old men who run it and take advantage of the youth the games are meant for, but those corrupt old men send people to take part in sport and not to get killed in wars.

The Opening Ceremony was wonderful and the crowds attending the games are supporting the athletes. The British are as partisan as the rest of the world, for a change, but support the rest of the world's athletes too; especially Usain Bolt; the 100 metres final was watched by one third of the total population.

The final of the 100 metres almost coincided with the 50^th Anniversary of Jamaica's Independence and plenty of Jamaican Celebrations took place in the capital.

London won the Olympics on July 6^th 2005; people celebrated it was a great day. The place was on such a high. People were actually dancing in the streets and the next day the bombers attacked.

Whether it had anything to do with the Olympic announcement I don't know. They had planned the attacks and made their pathetic videos well beforehand; got themselves out of bed that morning and could probably see the happiness and the celebrations taking place and still placed their bombs killing 52 innocent people.

Seven years later the Olympics are up and running and are successful and they are great!

And then there was Morrisey.

He says 'I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event' and he criticises the U.K. public for the outpouring of support which has been seen since the Olympics kicked off.

The former 'Smiths' singer has cited a spirit of 1939 Germany in Britain this summer. A headline on the Internet says 'Former Smiths singer Morrissey has caused controversy by citing a “spirit of 1939 Germany” in Britain this summer.'

I hate jingoism and I agree with Samuel Johnson when he said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel but these people are cheering their team on; they appreciate good sport and applaud the other teams too.

I know it takes people's minds off the troubles of the world and kind of brainwashes them (us) but people need to feel good at the moment with politicians seemingly not knowing what they are doing and the bankers steaming forward into their new world order with their single currency ambitions and the worship of greed, but Britons are, for the first time, believing they are winners and maybe this will inspire youth to go to sport instead of rioting – who knows?

Morrisey lives in Los Angeles so he should know a little bit about jingoism and patriotism and in a business where he is almost worshiped by acolytes I think it sounds a bit rich.

Poor old Morrisey.

On a train in England

At the moment I am on a high speed train speeding through the great green expanse of England – or will be soon – we have just left London Liverpool Street Station and on our way to Suffolk; we are going to a tiny village called Great Finborough which is near Stowmarket – an old market town as you will deduce from its name.
I am due to do my play The 2 Sides of Eddie Ramone in Edinburgh for 3 weeks in August and whilst in London I went to a small pub theatre to have a look at the space as they offered me a slot there for July 23^rd to try it out before going to Scotland.
At the moment the train has stopped at the station in Stratford; now this isn't the Stratford in Stratford-upon-Avon where the Royal Shakespeare Company hang out but the Stratford in east London made famous many years ago by Joan Littlewood and her theatre group in Gerry Raffles Square – I believe Gerry Raffles was her partner in the venture and they produced plays by Brendan Behan, Lionel Bart and many others and some great actors. At the moment Stratford seems to be famous for the upcoming Olympic Games and I can see the buildings ready for the games as I look through the window I can see plenty of work and a wonderful round of delights to come next year.
I will be trying my play out first of all in Santa Monica as they offered me 3 nights there in June – so by the time I get to Edinburgh I should know it – I hope.
Yesterday I met the guy who runs the Edinburgh venue and he offered me a nice spot for a bigger poster – I hope that wasn't the lager talking so I sent him an e-mail this morning telling him that I would be taking him up on the offer.
We were in a pub in Great Russell Street, in Covent Garden, very near the Royal Opera House which is truly a beautiful white building and newly refurbished; I don't know if they still get funded by the Lottery Fund but it's well worth it; unfortunately it costs a fortune to get in way much more than regular theatre seats in the West End.
This means, of course, that the man in the street can very rarely afford to go there. Now you might say that the man in the street isn't interested in opera well I have to tell you that this man in the street loves it. I worked with a couple of opera companies many years ago; not as a singer, I hasten to add, but as a technician.
With the D'Oyly Carte company I did the sound; they specialised in Gilbert and Sullivan operas which is not grand opera as there is spoken dialogue. I didn't have to pick them up with a microphone or anything like that as their magnificent voices would carry over the sound of the orchestra and into the auditorium.
I had to play the announcements, which were pre-recorded – you know 'ladies and gentlemen would you kindly take your seats as the performance if about to commence.'
Usually the person who did the lighting on the grand master very sophisticated lighting board would do the sound which only be used for effects and music but with the opera companies and ballet troops the lighting cues were many fold so they needed another person to do the sound.
Now we are stopped at Colchester; it is the oldest recorded town in England and is also famous for a military nick; that's the place the army send you if you’ve been sentenced after a court marshal. It's not only a military prison as they have soldiers there too. I can't remember what regiment is there – maybe an Essex regiment. I was there years ago when I was in the Army Cadets and remember seeing a prisoner or two being marched around the parade ground by a sergeant on the double and the prisoner didn't have any laces in his boots.
We were only cadets and very young too; I looked younger than most and one of the regulars turned around to me and said “Oye! When did you leave off your nappy?”
I didn't say a word back, of course, but my mates decided it was a good excuse for a fight so we went outside and had a scrap; can't even remember if we won.
So back to the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company; as I sat in the control box there were a few tape recorders at the back which I would use for the announcements and when the company manager from the opera company came in all he saw was tape and immediately thought I was going to record and pirate the opera. Nothing could have been further from the truth because even though I loved the opera we had The Beatles White Album in the control room – nuff said??
But I worked with the Sadlers Welles Opera Company too on Grand Opera and that was really exciting and gave me a lifetime of pleasure.
The opera singers with their wonderful voices didn't always sound like that – most of them were Italian, of course, but I remember one singer who had a wonderful bass voice; I was backstage this time and had to knock very loudly and angrily on a door. It had to be a really hard knock and I had to use a hammer. The singer, with the bass voice, didn't speak with a bass voice when talking and he had quite a thick London accent.
“Give it a good bang there son – a really good old smack!”
I wondered who this was and turned quickly to see the aforementioned bass singer.
“Nice one, son” he said, walked on and came out with his wonderful voice.
So now we are nearing Ipswich and I thought I would be posting this on the train as it said there was free wi-fi; I looked on there and, in fact, it does say it's free but in order to use it free of charge you have to pay £2.95. Now what's free about that?