I’ve just been confirmed to play this brilliant show that has an amazing line up on Tuesday 3rd of July. It features both Bad Ideas & Ducking Punches who are two of the most talented Folk/Punk acts in the UK.
Its at The Blind Tiger Club (formerly Hectors House) £4 entry with a half 7 kick off.
See you there!
Today I deleted my Facebook account, this means that my music page has also been deleted.
My main reason for doing this was 
because I didn’t really use it anymore except for the music page. However facebook has now decided that people should opt in to see posts from pages and pages should PAY to have people see what they post.
I fail to see how these new features do anything but hinder both bands and music lovers. From now on all of my updates will be on here. For more regular updates on minor things you can follow me on twitter @richie_blitz. If your wanting to get in touch feel free to email me at ‘richieblitz@yahoo.co.uk’.
Hello all,
I’ve neglected this site a little as I’ve been busy recording and such. My new EP ‘As long as I live’ is now available to download from bandcamp (link on the downloads section of this site), hopefully you’ll like it. It contains 4 new tracks for your listening pleasure and is completely free. I did have someone come and ask for a CD at my last gig & as of yet I haven’t made any, mainly because I don’t feel comfortable charging people for it when its available for free. I do however realise that not everyone has the internet so I will make CD’s at some point that will be sold for the cost of materials only (disk/case ect). I have made some patches that I’m giving away as well. They are all hand painted and will probably just be laying around on the merch table at my gigs, feel free to take one (and a sticker) if you see them.
I just had an argument with an admin who runs quite a large punk music based page on Facebook regarding a picture he posted.
The picture was of 2 stick men, one throwing a Swastika into a bin, the other throwing a Hammer & Sickle into a Bin. Around this image were the words “Love Music Hate Politics”.
My initial response to the image was that I disagreed and hated fence sitters. My reason for this is that many far right bands have now begun using the “We don’t do politics” line to avoid being exposed as the Nazi’s they are.
When I pointed out that you couldn’t love punk music and hate politics as the majority of punk is political the admin responded with
“MOST PUNKS HATE politicians and the shit they do SO YES HATE POLITICS and thats not being a fence sitter”
To which I responded – “Anarchism, Anti-authoritarianism, anti-fascism, these are all political theories and I fail to see how you could enjoy a song about any of these things (like the last few posts you made admin) without subscribing to them. The only way you could enjoy them without agreeing with them is if you didn’t understand the language that they are in as then they would be meaningless.”
Admins Response – “Fascism,Communism,Capitalism = War ,Greed ,hatred,money and power HATE POLITICS”
Me – “You’ve just completely ignored my point! You can hate on politicians and Governing State’s and their theory all you want, I hate them too but you cant hate on politics as it includes all stances against such things”
Admin – “ANARCHY is self Autonomy with no state telling you what to do .”
Me – “Anarchism is a political theory whether you like it or not. I’ll believe you hate politics when you post this same pic with an added stick man throwing a circle A into a bin.”
As of yet the admin has neither responded nor posted a picture with the addition I suggested.
Before my next point I would like to make clear that the admin regularly posts anti fascist links and attacks racism openly on the page.
Normally when I see something on facebook I ignore it as quite frankly I’ve got better things to do. I commented on this however as the line “I’m not interested in politics” is becoming increasing used by people who call themselves punk.
The “Not interested in politics” line is also the main defense of many bands when asked about their opinions on serious matters. They say they sit on the fence but in reality have a right wing agenda and refuse to admit it (you’ll never find someone who is ashamed to be an Anti-fascist) . More people saying their not interested in politics and sitting on the fence means that these bands can hide in plain site with an acceptable excuse.
PUNK MUSIC IS POLITICAL!!! (with perhaps the exception of pop punk) whether you like it or not! If you don’t accept this fact then your doing nothing more than buying into a fashion craze sold to you by the media. Even if a band doesn’t sing about politics directly songs about social issues are inherently political as politics affects society.
I’m not saying everyone has to go out and become an activist but have an opinion on important matters at least!
The next time someone tells you they’re not political in an argument over an issue in society, remind them that by there is no such thing and to get off the fence.
So as some of you may already know I recently had an accident that meant I was unable to play a couple of gigs (Nov 28th Brighton & Dec 2nd London). On the Sunday before the Folk Against Fascism gig I fell down a full flight of stairs then over the next half hour had three seizures. This led to me spending the rest of the day in hospital having a C.T. scan of my brain, an X-ray of my hand and an E.C.G. to check my heart. During the fall I somehow managed to rip the nail on my right thumb half off which meant I couldn’t hold a plectrum without feeling like the nail was going to fall off. Fortunately all of the scans came back fine and I was just left feeling battered and bruised.
As of yesterday I’ve been able to hold a plectrum and thumb pick without pain & with my album fully written I should be able to start recording some guitar tracks this week.
I also have my first London gig coming up (which also happens to be my first London house show) on Dec 17th were I’ll be supporting Crazy Arm, Great Cynics, Mike Scott, Jake & The Jellyfish and Perkie (AMAZING I KNOW!) .
So hopefully there will be some new recordings soon & fingers crossed I wont fall down anymore stairs
Richie Blitz 