Patrick McGoohan and John Mortimer die, The Wildebeests play at the Dirty Water Club, and Iggy Pop advertises car insurance

by Parsley on Tue, 2009/01/20 - 1:06am Post to Twitter

PARSLEY’S COMMLOCK

Obituary News: Patrick McGoohan, Sir John Mortimer QC
Patrick McGoohan, who died this week, was a captivating actor, who initially came to fame with the title role in Ibsen’s Brand, but then achieved public notoriety in the sixties, starring in the spy drama ‘Danger Man’ (‘Secret Agent Man’ in the USA). Reflecting McGoohan’s personal moral code he was the spy that never carried a gun, nor was he seen kissing.

However, he is most widely remembered because he subsequently took nightmare visions born in the likes of Orwell’s ‘1984’, and made them into ‘The Prisoner’, a televisual prophecy of the worst parts of the reality we now live in.

Constant surveillance, attempts of our administrators to control every aspect of our behaviour, and a groaning hypocrisy that we live in a democracy that respects our wishes, are just 3 of the characteristics of our world that the Prisoner’s ‘Village’ helps illustrate. It is required viewing for anyone that wants to be a human being again and not ‘die here like rotten cabbages’.

In the autumn of 1981 I took its lessons to the political machine that was Manchester University Students Union. The Prisoner broke a supercomputer by asking it the question ‘Why?’ As questions were an expression union members were allowed I asked everyone that spoke that same question. Being as obsessed with their little world as I was, they were just confused. When The Prisoner attempts to make a speech, he is shouted down by his audience chanting ‘I I I’ as a parody of his ‘triumph’ of individuality. I spoke ‘I I I’ at the students union until the Chair said I was not making a ‘proper’ speech and so I was not allowed to say it anymore.

These days there is a mantra of ‘I hear what you’re saying’. Cabinet members claim to have read ‘1984’ and describe it as influential on them, and yet they have been instrumental in fulfilling the most despicable aspects of its prophecy. Please use every scintilla of your influence to force the tide back the other way.

By the way, I love Newsnight dearly, but when it describes Patrick McGoohan as making black roll necks famous, then presents its tribute - a 30-second replay of part of the opening sequence of The Prisoner - it is an extremely poor show.

The week got worse when Sir John Mortimer QC also died. Mortimer was the creator of the barrister ‘Rumpole of The Bailey’. His stories prick the consciences of the pompous and the powerful by characterising the realities of how the law operates, and why the founding pillars of justice, such as the right to silence, trial by jury and the presumption of innocence, are so important.

I hope those of us that do know why the death of these two great men is so sad will take it as a clarion call to pick up where they left off.

Concert Review : The Wildebeests at the Dirty Water Club 16/01/09
It was extremely decent of the Wildebeests to make the trek down from Scotland to grace London with two concerts. I caught the first on the occasion of Bruce Brand’s birthday at the Dirty Water Club.

Lenny Helsing (on drums) and John Gibbs (on bass) were looking deceptively casual, whilst Russ Wilkins (guitar) was sporting a thin tie which he quickly regretted as it fought him for control of the guitar sound, till he took it off.

They started with some rocking stonkers, then blossomed into covers of several underground sixties garage classics. Highlights included Liberator, Comanche, Rowed Out, Diddy Wah Diddy and Just Like Me.

As usual I was startled by how great they made these sound with a 3-piece line up. This was certainly assisted by the fact that they all sing (including Lenny whilst performing full-on drumming duties). They continued their all encompassing musical journey with a version of the Clash’s ‘Garage Band’, followed up (cheekily as Russ noted) with Clash pastiche/parody ‘1997’ (featuring the lyric ‘Why Can’t People Stick To What They Say’).

I suspect that a chunk of the crowd hadn’t seen The Wildebeests before, but after their tour de force performance it didn’t stop them cheering for an encore of ‘Gloria’, featuring guest birthday drummer Bruce Brand.

Apologies that catching up with friends on the night prevents me from commenting on the other bands that appeared, but it is quite clear that the Dirty Water Club remains fantastic value for a weekly international repertoire of the best of garage sounds that would make festivals green with envy.

Advertising News: Iggy Pop advertising car insurance
Lovely to see the undulating folds of Iggy Pop’s face in big adverts on the platform at St.Pancras International Thameslink. Amazing and delightful that car insurance company swiftcover.com have chosen him to be their face.

parsley@gardenrecords.com [www.gardenrecords.com]