R.I.P Harold Pinter

Just a quick - and slightly late - post this holiday season, to pay tribute to Harold Pinter, who passed away on Christmas Eve. One of our very first Departure Lounge performances was the music for Mary Luckhurst's production of Pinter's Landscape in York, a powerful work which has stayed with us all, and which we often still recall. Pinter was an inspiration both in his writing and his political passion and commitment; a true icon of the Twentieth Century.

I would like to stand by the sea...

Harold Pinter - Landscape

On a slightly different note - to all of our readers and listeners, very best wishes for 2009, from all of us at Departure Lounge.

Shame on this Govenment...

"Form 696" proposes draconian regulation of live performance

(With apologies to Johnson's Rambler for reprinting the same article...)


From The Independent:

"Teenage kicks will be harder to get if publicans and managers of other small venues are forced to comply with a new piece of bureaucracy called Form 696, a former punk rock star has warned.

The form demands that licensees give police a mass of detail, including the names, aliases, private addresses and phone numbers of all musicians and other performers appearing at their venue, and the ethnic background of the likely audience. Failure to comply could mean the loss of a licence or even a fine and imprisonment.

The police say they need the information demanded on Form 696, which runs to eight pages, so they can pinpoint which acts and venues attract troublemakers, and make sure venues are safe. But Feargal Sharkey, who rose to fame during the punk era as the vocalist on the single "Teenage Kicks" by the Undertones, is so angry about what he sees as a threat to live music that he is consulting lawyers about how to stop it."

I wouldn't normally be so overtly political on this blog, but this is an absolute disgrace; the government seems to think that 'Big Brother' needs to be watching everyone in a way that can only be described as resembling a police state.
And wanting to know the ethnic background of the audience? What use could that information possibly be to the police, unless you're making broad-based assumptions about peoples' behaviour based on their race? They should all be ashamed.
And in case anyone thinks I'm being party-political; I think the Tories would behave as badly if not worse, they don't deserve to call themselves the opposition.

Please show your support; click here to sign a petition on the 10 Downing St website.

PS: Kudos to Feargal Sharkey for making a stand...


Jim.

Happy Birthday Elliott Carter

Elliott Carter
100 years old today and still going strong.
Many happy returns from all at the Lounge to an inspirational composer and human being; may his youthfulness, energy and astonishing output continue to put the rest of us to shame.

Read more coutesy of The Guardian

Gina's Sunday Story (5)

Neal Gaiman... Need we say more?

Our Sunday Song (4)

Influenced by Roald Dahl books and Tim Burton films... Le genius!