Thunderbozz

Less than two weeks after a surprisingly positive review into digital radio station 6 Music , the BBC is considering scrapping the network. This is not only an extremely short-sighted, headline-grabbing decision designed to appease political and commercial opponents, but also directly contravenes the Corporation's mandate. In 1922, Lord Reith declared the BBC's mission in elegant terms. "The BBC is here to inform, educate and entertain, to enrich people's lives." Eighty years later, I fell in love with a radio station that followed these guidelines to the letter. Jude Rogers , The Guardian Fans of the station – who, although "few in number" , certainly work hard to ensure their voices are heard – have already put forward extremely eloquent and passionate arguments for keeping, protecting and investing more in the station. There is little that I can add to the words of Phill Jupitus , Andrew Collins , Alistair Harper et al . Far from b...

On Thursday night I went to the Sheffield Showroom to see a screening of Alan Miles' documentary, Breaking Rocks . It was the first date in a mini-tour of Britain for the film, which follows the progress of Jail Guitar Doors , an initiative to help rehabilitate prisoners through music. Founded by Billy Bragg in 2007, the scheme was inspired by Malcolm Dudley, a counsellor who worked at Guys Marsh prison. Using some borrowed guitars, he had started a small but significant music class to help inmates express themselves and build confidence: the first steps towards true rehabilitation. This was just the beginning, and the film documents how JGD has grown from just six guitars into a programme grew into an international organisation in only a few years. Bragg's contribution is invaluable to it's success, and his personal involvement in the project extends far beyond being the "public face"; ultimately though, it's the prisoners who are the stars. Two of...

I set myself some New Year's Resolutions (plural) this year. Nothing special in that, most people do. I haven't started (let alone completed) any of them; again, I suspect, like most people. The explanation for this is pretty simple: I'm just too lazy to have many enough effort, yet it feels so incredibly frustrating still. Reason being, I hate hypocrites. I don't like people who break promises. I don't like people who let me down. Hence, I don't like myself when I don't deliver. It's annoying when the landlord doesn't provide us with a meter reading; it's frustrating when client's don't give you all the information you need; but, for me, it's absolutely gutting when it's me who's ballsed-up. Fortunately, resolutions are pretty arbitrary: it doesn't matter if you start them in January or June; you don't have to wait until December 31 before thinking-up a new one. So maybe I will put some effort in. And maybe...

For the first time in a very long time (in fact, I can't even remember when this last happened) I had a nightmare last night. As is the case with most of my dreams, I can't actually remember what was giving me the spooks, I just remember that there was lots of screaming, lots of sirens, lots of distant explosions... and a single ghostly figure kept appearing. It was really quite terrifying. I'm over it now. My teams have had a mixed weekend. Dartford suffered another home defeat, which reduces our lead to just ten points (still with two games in hand). Admittedly, this doesn't sound like the most disastrous situation in the world, but it's never nice to start losing games. West Ham also managed to lose, which sees us slide back into the relegation zone. It would be nice to think that we're too good to go down (and there are certainly three teams in the Premier League worse than us), but football's a funny old game. Hopefully our new Brazilian Ilan c...