The crowded boat

How are you coping with The Rule Of Six? It doesn't present a problem for me personally, but for at least one band I can think of, Monkeyfists, with seven band members, they can't even get together for a band practice without Priti Patel demanding that someone dob them in.

Schooner shanty with a Sunday shandy

So since you've no real chance of seeing them performing any time soon, here instead is a clip of the nation's most land-locked sea shanty band playing at a Klub Kakofanney Sunday Session, in a dimly-lit Wheatsheaf, back in the winter of 2018.

Aeroplane Membrane

Another band which would break the six rule just by rehearsing is the tambourine-loving student band, Mandrake Handshake, though by how many they exceed the half dozen is difficult to know. There are so many of them in the band that it was a struggle to fit them all on-stage at the Wheatsheaf. Here is a clip of one of their songs from their Klub Kakofanney performance in February 2019, back when they were still known as Knobblehead.

Let's not play the blame game

Covid case numbers have risen sharply in recent weeks, and that's brought a fresh wave of people playing the blame game. So far during this pandemic we have had Trump blaming it on China, and we've had a bigots blaming it on illegal immigrants.

This latest surge is increasingly being blamed on young people. Even reputable news publications such as The Times have run with the headline: "Raves to be hit with big fines as young people spread coronavirus" and the BBC said "Young people breaking the rules risk second wave", whilst a pub in Yorkshire has gone so far as to ban anyone under 25. Yes, it is true that "young people" account for many of the new infections we are currently seeing, but that is because young people make up the largest proportion of the population being urged back into the schools, shops, and factories.

Please don't demonise young people or any other demographic. Please don't play the blame game. Remember we are all in the same crowded boat.

20th September 2020
The Lockdown Letters
Klub Kakofanney