Flyer
The Freshies, Harlem Spirit, John Cooper Clarke
Alexandra Park
8th August 1981

Think I spotted this one on your uploads before...oh well it's a nice one.
All hands on deck for a good cause.....
Strangely enough,thinking about it,I occasionally listened to the 1 o clock news from Moscow,just to get a different perspective on things;it was certainly propagandist but interesting nonetheless.(Don't think Alexi Sayle's "Albania" song was that far off the mark). I spent 3 days in Moscow, not long after Chernobyl and was a bit deflated to realise that Western propaganda about the Eastern Block did have more than a modicum of truth...well I wouldn't want to live there!.I think the statistic was something like 20 odd nuclear missiles directly aimed at Manchester at any one time which,of course would have anihilated the place.I've just remembered thinking ....well,'cos I live near the city centre I probably won't know anything about it if it happens;which was a perverse kind of relief.....Sudden recollection of being at a party and someone coming in and saying the Russians had just invaded Afghanistan;that put a dent in the evenings proceedings!Odd to think of all this now...especially as I missed the whole dissolving of the Iron Curtain.It was a tangeable and ever-present undercurrent of the time and of course music,like any art, has a context.(If N.W.A. had released an album called "Straight outta The Hamptons" and a song entitled "Hi !to the Police" would it have got anywhere?...I think not..) So the music of this time would certainly have reflected, in some way the mood of the populace...Well that's what I think anyway...Bloody hell I think I need a lie down after that....