Come the Day…

Available FREE on iTunes and Podbean

On this episode of Ungagged, introduced by Neil Scott, Graham Campbell talks about the Rethinking Race conference in Glasgow, Victoria Pearson reminds us that hope is apathy’s twin sister if it isnt backed up with action, and George Collins  talks about how children are citizens now, not citizens in waiting, and they deserve to have that recognised in the education system, as well as wider society.

At the request of his daughter Zoe, Derek Stewart Macpherson reads The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Paul Quigley of the FAC tells us why he cofounded the campaign against the Offensive Behaviour in Football Act, and Chuck Hamilton, will be talking Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, free thought (or not) in regards religion, and Marx. They are linked, we promise!

We will have an update on Jagtar Singh Johal, the Scottish man being detained in India from Damanvir Kaur, Debra Torrance* will give us her prediction of our situation come the day of Brexit, and Teresa Durran shares her poems Resurgum 1 and 2.

Catriona Stevenson, talks about the Glencoe Massacre,  Thomas Morris asks if, when times are tough, it is better to leave “your” country, or stay and fight to make it better, and our Red Raiph talks about whit can go wrang when you give someone a job for life.

 

With music from: Andrea Heins, Argonaut, Gallo Rojo, Girobabies, Husky Tones, Joe Solo, Kes’ Conscience,  Thunder on the Left,  Babel fish Project, The Hurriers, The Kara Sea.

Edited, produced and sworn at by Neil Scott, Neil Anderson and Victoria Pearson

Get yourself Ungagged and let us know what you think of this episode in the comments, or on our twitter, Facebook or our new YouTube Channel.

 

* Debra references two video clips in her piece, a piece from RT on the Brexit transition, and an interview on Good Morning Britain.

Ungagged is a not for profit collective of volunteers, and we rely on the generosity of our listeners to meet hosting and advertising costs, as well as help us fund the campaigns on our news page. If you’d like to donate us the cost of a newspaper or a cup of coffee to help keep us going, you can do so through PayPal here.

 

James King and the Lonewolves

 

James King and the Lonewolves 

James King and the Lonewolves – the Glasgow band famed in the 1980s for their wild gigs – got back together in 2013, and still have some bite about them!

 ‘You guys were 10 years too early’

Ken McCluskey (The Bluebells) in 1996 at height of Britpop.

Now, having hooked up with Edinburgh’s Stereogram Recordings (home to The Cathode Ray and Roy Møller), that fantastic, long-lost album, Lost Songs of the Confederacy, has finally seen the light of day – obviously re-recorded, re-mastered and brought up to scratch with new recordings to supplement the buried ones resulting in James saying there was

‘unfinished business to be done’.

See more on their Facebook

The Gift

Available FREE on iTunes and Podbean

We’ve a real gift of a podcast for you this episode, since “gift” was our theme. Of course, we didn’t all stick to the theme – this is Ungagged after all…

In this episode, Red Raiph will be retelling The Raven, Em Dehaney will be talking about Christmas gifts and not always getting what you want, Chuck Hamilton will be reading White Ribbons For Indy, an article written by the Ungagged collective, and later coming back to read his own piece, The Monkey Trap, Ola’s Kool Kitchen will be chatting about how white supremacists on social media fan the flames of hate and misinformation and Richie Venton will be back with the second part of his piece on the 1917 Russian Revolution. Paul Sheridan will be telling us all about the Diggers movement, Damanvir Kaur will be giving us the latest in the Free Jaggi campaign, and George Collins will be talking about the rise and fall of Empires.

We will also be hearing from Victoria Pearson, reading her short story The Clock Strikes Christmas, An Alternative Christmas Tale, and  Steve McAuliffe with his poem “Why is Tyranny a Dirty Word?”, Debra Torrance will be talking about the Gift of Hindsight, and Ruth Hopkins will be telling us exactly why we should be horrified at Trump referring to Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas”, and Derek Stewart Macpherson will be giving us a whole stockingful of of gifts, talking about the Gift of comedy, the gift of freedom, and the dubious “gift” Trump just gave Jerusalem.

We’ll have all of that, plus music from Blackheart Orchestra, Jackal Trades, David Rovics, Mullen, Joe Solo, Steve McAuliffe and The Mighty Ur, Argonaut,  Sharon Martin,  The Cundeez,  Gallows Circus,  Those Unfortunates, The Wakes,  Attila The Stockbroker, The Kara Sea, and Robb Johnson.*

This episode was presented by Debra Torrance, Edited by Neil Anderson and produced by Victoria Pearson.

Neil Scott wasn’t able to be in this episode, but he still found time to write a gift for you. Check out his short story A Gift Comes Calling…

And Teresa Durran also just missed out on this pod, so has written a poem for you to enjoy, called Advent.

* All money from Merry Christmas One & All, the Single by Robb Johnson, will go to the Brighton Community Night Shelter & Sussex Homeless Support, so please buy if you can, for 79p, from iTunes

Get yourself Ungagged and let us know what you think of this episode in the comments, or on our twitter or Facebook.

Ungagged is a not for profit co-operative, and we rely on the generosity of our listeners. If you’d like to donate us the cost of a newspaper or a cup of coffee, you can do so through PayPal here.

 

Steve McAuliffe & The Mighty Ur

Steve McAuliffe & The Mighty Ur 

Back in early 2017, Steve McAuliffe (a regular performer of his own poetry on the Ungagged podcasts) set upon a quest to track down the legendary and mysterious musician, The Mighty Ur.
As he explained to the somewhat bemused website producer, V Pearson, the quest was triggered by a strange dream:
‘In the dream I saw a huge mouse-like man stood against a backdrop of rolling hills that seemed vaguely familiar, he was pointing at a nearby river, I remember the sound of its churning, rushing waters was almost unbearably loud. I also remember my dream-self thinking it must have sounded even louder to the mouse-man who possessed huge over-sized ears that rose above the crown of his head. Suddenly the day-time scene switched to night and the mouse pointed upward toward a star which was shining brightly in the darkened sky. I instinctively knew the star to be Sirius, and the body of water I believed was The River Ure in North Yorkshire. From my recent readings I was aware that the ancient Sumerians believed Sirius to be home to their pantheon of mighty gods, their capital city was known as Ur. The connection was made. I had heard that the infamous punk musician Andrew Monks had moved back to North Yorkshire, to a place called Leyburn (close to the Ure), and he had renamed himself ‘The Mighty Ur’. Upon awakening, I knew exactly what I had to do. I knew that I was destined to work with him on a musical project that could possibly change the world of poetical/musical collaboration for ever.
So a week later, when I arrived on his doorstep bearded, bedraggled and sopping wet from the waters I had swam across to reach him, I was not in the least bit surprised that he was expecting me. In fact, he had built a studio to record what he called;

‘Songs to tear down the prison walls and to liberate the mind’

The rest, I guess is …. Well, it’s a work in progress’.

 

So there you have it. The Mighty Ur’s mission is to tear down the walls and Steve McAuliffe’s mission is to rebuild Albion from out of the rubble.
From out of this necessary and hopefully complimentary tension they intend to birth a new kind of world, a kind of anarcho-utopia. This may sound ridiculous and hugely over-ambitious, but at the end of the day and in the midst of these strange times –
Well, who knows?

 

You can follow SteveMcAuliffe & The Mighty Ur on twitter

The double-a-side single: Albion Sleeps / Socialist Cortinas by Steve McAuliffe & The Mighty Ur is now available on iTunes, Spotify,  and many other platforms.
Their celebrated EP ‘rejecting Soma’ is also available on iTunes, Spotify and Bandcamp.
An album is rumoured to be in the works.
‘-Beneath the pavement, the beach!’