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Rock & Pop
 News Feature (from
March 98):
It's all over now Tony
Blair- PM
- PM kicked out of "Cool
Britannia Club"
Tony Blair aka "The PM
of Pop" has been thrown out of the "Cool Britannia
Club" according to pompous pundits at the New Musical Express
(NME) magazine. They claim the Prime Minister has failed to deliver
on election promises to help the poor.
The Labour Party, now led by
Blair, has long been the natural home for the renegades of rock.
The last election campaign was no exception with the Party's
anthem "Things can only get better" becoming inexorably
linked with Blair himself. The PM has also hosted numerous "Cool
Britannia" parties at 10 Downing Street with guests including
Oasis's Noel Gallagher and TFI Friday's Chris Evans lining up
to quaff champagne and talk up the country's future.
- "Ever had the feeling
you've been cheated" says NME
The NME writes of "The
Labour Government's war on you" and asks "Ever had
the feeling you've been cheated". It cites Pulp's Jarvis
Cocker and Ian Broudie of The Lightening Seeds as examples of
Britpop shining lights who have become disillusioned with the
formerly "hip" PM and his policies.
- Grandees of Britpop round
on Blair
Meanwhile Creation Records
boss Alan McGee has attacked the market orientated New Labour
approach and criticised the Welfare to Work programme. He claims
the new initiative will starve the music industry of new talent
as budding bands will no longer be able to live off the dole
(unemployment benefit) while nurturing their talent and seeking
record deals.
- LondonNet Comment: Get
Real Groovers
News that the NME has jumped
on the right wing bandwagon to halt the "Labour Honeymoon"
comes as no surprise to the LondonNet newsdesk. Music journalism
is more fashion than substance and the young bright things down
at the 'Xpress probably think they can up their dwindling circulation
figures by surfin' the latest Labour bashing trend. But hey guys,
spot the facts:
1) Talk that the Labour government
is out of touch with the people is tosh. Check the polls to see
how they are more popular NOW than at the time of their landmark
landslide.
2) The real whining is coming
from those entrenched bastions of feudal conservatism; "Country
Folk"(read landowners), The House of Lords (that seat of
revolution) and The Liberal Media Establishment (BBC, Grauniad
et al ).
3) Alan McGee really means
he wants you the taxpayer to foot the bill for the kind of education
and training his vastly profitable industry has been failing
to deliver for decades.
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