man, so the new year starts in Switzerland at least with considerable death in a ski resort due to a nightclub which given the nature of such can accommodate a lot of folk in a small confined space with limited exits...all for making a perfect storm in the instance a fire does break out... these things unfortunately happen and no doubt inquests and investigations will be undertaken...but here's the reason for the blog...the amount of kids on their cells taking video even as naked flames were seen coming from the ceiling is sad and truly a reflection on a generation that has only known to 'film' everything... has the mobile smart/dumb phone really dulled the senses of a generation so much that the first instinct, when confronted with a life threatening situation, is not to ensure one makes every attempt to leave the premises and get out onto the safety of the street, BUT to stay put and start filming flames from above your head whilst being oblivious to the fact you're actually subterranean with a very narrow stair well as your only exit... what survival instinct kicks in if your first instinct is to make sure the happenings around you are recorded on your dumb phone...it's really sad and I totally believe it's ingrained into the younger generation's mind now to reach for the dumb phone over all else...what's happening inside the minds of these kids...the footage will be great Instagram fodder? maybe WKRP Channel 8 will buy it from me...? I know we're way older than these kids and were lucky to have lived our 20 something lives without the dumb phone but it really does beggar belief to think when confronted with something as scary and threatening as an underground fire in a confined space with lots of fuel (alcohol and wall/ceiling cladding) that the first instinct is to film, not walk briskly toward the exit.... the psychological term 'to take flight or fight' gets an addition from hereon replaced with a more appropriate saying for these times...'to take flight or fight...or film' ...kinda sad

okay so, punk and disco came and left in about the same length of time as the maximum parliamentary term (disco maybe a little longer but certainly nothing comparable to that of rap and hip-hop which have lasted decades). But, without punk and disco we wouldn't have had new wave and as Paul Simon once said every generation throws a hero up the pop chart and mostly everyone had had enough of disco (it's a great genre, love and respect it totally now but didn't always then...) and well, we didn't drop Punk as they actually killed themselves and went the way of the dinosaurs... Okay, so if no Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' then no Human League's 'Love Action' and if no Clash's 'Rock the Casbah' then no critical evolvement of seminal artists and bands like XTC, Elvis Costello or B52's. The Clash were perhaps the best at fusing punk with emerging new wave sounds and technology, inspiring many bands thereafter ('London Calling' and 'Combat Rock' prime examples). So, the first we realise of something 'new' is afoot is the brilliance of Trevor Horn's 'Video Killed the Radio Star' and we think, 'hey this ain't no disco...', it's different...sounds brilliant even tho it's excessively poppy but that's okay with most of us, - it's actually the start of synth pop and new wave and it appears at the same time as Ronnie Biggs ends his infamous stint as lead singer of the Pistols Mk III and also that of Summer and Pete Bellotte giving us 'Hot Stuff' (brilliant disco track that'll never see Summer sound this good (or way) ever again). So, there was a sense of some things coming to an end and being replaced with well, stuff like Trevor Horn (go on to create FGTH soon thereafter) and the undervalued genius of Gary Numan (who was most definitely inspired by Bowie's ground breaking synth albums 'heroes' and 'low', much to Bowie's lack of enthusiasm for such adulation...) 'Are Friends Electric' and 'Cars' are both walls of synth sound which sit on equal footing with Bowie's 'heroes', but they weren't disco or punk, they were synth pop/new wave classics emerging at the right time (and right place, UK) and with that the rebellion was on and a lot of others would soon follow; - Human League (Phil's version), Heaven 17, Japan, XTC, Dave Stewart, Duran (cut these guys a lot of slack for writing 'Planet Earth' and being there when it counted, lol), Ultravox, Depeche, Yazoo/Vince Clarke, Spandau, Pet Shop Boys, Simple Minds et al etc etc.

JL and Yoko Ono famously took out advertisements throughout the major cities of the world to proclaim 'war is over if you want it' which essentially meant war is unnecessary and only waged because 'some' want it, whereas the converse is true as well (if you don't want it, then there is no war) - How the hell do we get people to change their thinking from wanting it to not wanting it...if we look back over the past 100 years the world has not known one year without war so let's be honest peace is not hardwired into our DNA, violence is...that's just the plain simple truth - we strive to remain peaceful, we naturally revert to violence to settle disputes or to take what we want...the civilised side of ourselves is really a façade, we know it's the right way to act and 'be' but the caveman in all of us just comes to the surface every time there's disagreement coupled with our innate inability to 'get along' with others... war is over but only until it’s not..

...war in Gaza been going on for way way too long now and finally there is a scintilla of hope, a speck of light, a hint of positivity and maybe a cause for celebration if all this holds...if the US has indeed brokered a permanent peace then all nations who believe in global harmony and the preservation of peace and happiness should be very pleased that this has transpired...let's hope it's for real and that the senseless death and destruction of the past couple of years is coming to an end...cause everybody's talking about ministers, sinister, banisters and canisters, bishops, fishops, rabbis, and pop eyes, bye bye, bye bye, all we are sayin' is give peace a chance, don't say it if you don't mean it...

so, my dear old Dad passed away over the weekend and it was sad but it was also an amazing time with him through the week prior being able to talk to him and say proper final goodbyes...not everyone gets that so I'm really grateful that we had that opportunity and were able to recount with him some of the great memories we share... Pop (as we called him) was 92 years old, several months shy of 93 and 2 years younger than his mother, who for a while there I thought he'd surpass her milestone but alas he succumbed to the dreaded flu, which then turned into pneumonia, which then started shutting down vital organs and once that gets a hold at that age there's no stopping it...age, what a cruel and unkind acquaintance to all of us...the Stones said time is not on our side; Railroad Gin (great Brisbane outfit from the 70's) said it would only be a matter of time and the great Dave Bowie said it may change him...what have do I know about time...? I know it discriminates and that it's unfair to a lot of people, but I can't say that about Pop - he lived a great, long life and was seen as a very kind man who loved his sport (he was Australian, what can we say...lol), family and even didn't mind the odd flutter on the fillies (we'd always ask him for his tip on the Melbourne Cup - he wasn't bad and he never bet heavy so the house was always safe...had a friend whose father almost bet theirs away...sad) He played tennis until he was 88 years old...man, can you imagine that...and he was super competitive even to the point of maiming people on the court (haha! lol) I'd tell him that he and his brothers who also were raised with the same kill or be killed attitude that they were nuts and I wouldn't play with them any longer as they'd headhunt you at the net...for those who play tennis you'll understand...So, understanding my face meant more to me than a point I politely declined to show up every Wednesday night...Well he's now up there maybe serving up an ace or looking to knock St Peter's block off with a sneaky pretend side-line shot deliberately intended to whistle through the air like an Exocet clipping one's ear lobe...lol, haha! He was also the gentlest man I'd ever met, who was raised 'tough' by his father but organically was kind and exceptionally fair minded - we get lucky with who our parents are in the instance they turn out to be really good people...I got lucky and stayed lucky for a long time...vale Pop!