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!

..and all along it was always just like it had always been...in the immortal words of David Byrne’s ’Once in a Lifetime’, we see through his lyrics the mundane life of a person who goes through the motions and trappings of social constructs whereby he marks his milestones in personal wealth and status symbols..we chase these things thinking they’ll be seen by family and friends as important and of course they’re not but we seem to fall for it over and over and sometimes sadly we lose sight of what really matters and is truly important..we complicate life in order to do this and it’s crazy to think that we would do that when with just a little more energy and planning we could un-complicate our lives and lead a more simple and easy existence and reconnect with things like nature or history or culture or even our own past and find genuine happiness in ordinary pursuits..they say living is about feeling totally alive, so some jump off buildings with chutes or climb Mt Everest or solo navigate the world in a dinghy to give themselves an adrenalised awakening but you know, tracing your past back to an old picture theatre that used to be a general store which was owned by your family over 150 years ago, can also give you a sense of not only being alive but of how you got here in the first place.