red rag 20p red rag/box 79/17 chatham st reading//printed by acorn/// next issue deadline 4.4.87// coordinator simon 666354//// reading's only newspaper//// RR 24 03 87 Fortnightly - - - MORE HASSLES AT THE DOLE OFFICE In case you hadn't realised that the "Welfare State" is just a Police State in disguise, they've dropped some more clues. Last week I rushed into Wessex House to sign on as I do every fortnight. Not too early, (or else the robot behind the counter refuses to allow me to sign until another robot gives permission over the P.A.). Not too late (or else a warning that I'll have to join that long queue at the end of the room as punishment). Right on time. A queue at my counter. Six minutes later I reach the front, push my card under the glass screen. No joy - no file in the box. Ah, "just routine" eh? I have to wait until my name is called. I join the half-dozen loiterers; I gaze out of the window. What's up? What are they after? Five minutes later, I'm called to another screen; they want to check my identity. (I'm me, I think, but I avoid saying it out loud - I want my money.) Then it's just like a police questioning: I know the answers; they know the answers (they are written down in front of them). They know I know the answers. Still they ask: address? date of birth? last employer? position held with last employer? which post office do I cash my giro at? I give fast, cold, resentful answers. I wonder if I should challenge them outright. Refuse to play and insist they accept my signature. Instead I rush through it scribble my name and get out as soon as I can. Like walking out of prison... for another fortnight anyway. Tom Hardy - - - READING DHSS IN FORMS SHOCK Reading DHSS now have forms for the new State Maternity Allowance, for pregnant women who can't claim Statutory Maternity Pay. The 12-page pastel designer form is available from the info desk downstairs if you ask nicely. Main features include:- £30:05/wk for up to 18 weeks: claims to be made after you are 26 weeks pregnant, (& you get less than 18 wks money if you go on working into the last 6 weeks of your pregnancy) not payable to women who are eligible for Statutory Maternity Pay; not payable to women who have not satisfied the National Insurance contribution conditions. The only type of contributions that are relevant are Classes 1 & 2 (employee & self-employed), paid by the woman herself, in the year leading up to the 26th week of her pregnancy. This means many women will lose out because the contributions they have paid are the wrong sort (eg reduced rate contributions for married women), or because they have not worked at the relevant time. These women will have to rely on Supplementary Benefit. For more information about the new maternity benefits, do not do as the DHSS say and contact them, but try the Centre for the Unemployed welfare rights team (596639), or the welfare rights for women sessions at the Womens Centre, 6 Silver St, on Tuesdays between 1pm-3pm. Also, don't forget the Maternity Emergency Rally at Central Hall, Westminster, SWL on 6th April. Go Safe! Billy Whizz. - - - IT'S YOUR BENEFIT - DEFEND IT!!! A year or so ago a lot of people were making a fuss about what Norman Fowler was doing to Social Security benefits. Locally we had Reading Campaign Against Benefit Cuts out leafleting every week. There were meetings. There were gimmicks, like sending mock Christmas cards to MPs (that was Christmas 1985). Then last July, when their lordships were up in London for the royal wedding, they took time off to approve the final wording of the Act. In Reading, as elsewhere, the Campaign seemed to die. Fortunately, the story of Reading Campaign's death was somewhat exaggerated. By the time this "Rag" appears, it will have organised a debate with both Labour and Alliance prospective MPs on the same platform (a lovely sight!) Next Saturday (28th) it's back to the streets to celebrate Mothers' Day! This year Mothers' Day almost coincides with the abolition of the £25 Maternity Grant, the "privatisation" of Maternity Allowance to employers and the other delights described by Billy Whizz in the last issue. Join us outside Tesco's from 9.30 till 12.00 on 28th. A week later will see another idiotic non-increase in benefits generally, part of the transition to an April-March benefit year (linked to Income Tax as the Alliance would like?). To mark the occasion there are two further leafleting sessions. On 1 April (when else?) we'll be leafleting everyone claiming benefit from the GPO, starting at 8.55. Then it's back to Tesco's on Saturday 4th. Let's tell the politicians that we have not forgotten Fowler's foul Act. Let's make Benefits an election issue. Please help! Contact: Graham 597317, Chris & Ted 477073 or (particularly for 1 April) Andrea 589036. - - - FILM AND VIDEO. Your humble correspondent apologises for the mysterious absense last week of this much maligned column, things aren't that much better this week either. RFT is on holiday at the moment. Films at South Hill Park. Ruthless People (18) Fri 27 March to Wed 1 April. 7.45 (Sat also 10.30) US 1986, Dir. Jim Abrahams/David Zucker/Jerrrry Zucker. 94 mins. Danny De Vito, Bette Midler Obnoxious tycoon Sam Stone finds he no longer has to murder his horrible wife Barbara when she is bundled away by two innocent failures. Put together by the 'Airplane' team, the film follows the classic plot of kidnappers abducting someone so revolting no-one wants them back; but for all its tackiness this antidote to Redford's 'Ordinary People' has some hilariously funny momes. Malcolm (15) Fri 3 to Sun 5 April 7.45 (Fri & Sat also 10.30) Aus. 1986, Dir. Nadia Tass 86 mins Malcolm is a shy but talented inventor, who takes in petty criminal Frank and his girlfriend Judith as lodgers, and puts his inventive talents at their disposal. An Ealing style comedy with a distinctive Australian flavour. Ginger & Fred (15) Mon 6 to Wed 8 April. 7.45 It. 1985, Dir. Frederico Fellini 127 mins Subtitles 'Ginger' and 'Fred', once a well-known dance team imitating the famous duo, reunite 30 years on for a TV spectacular. Fellini's film becomes a fierce attack on the media machine which succeeds nevertheless in generating a certain tenderness. "Fellini at his heartbreaking, viciously entertaining best" The Face. Andrej Rubelev Thur 9 April 7.45 Men (15) Fri 10 to Sun 12 April 7.45 (Fri & Sat also 10.30) W.Ger. 1986, Dir. Doris Dorrie. 96 mins. Subtitles Successful businessman and womaniser Julius has the tables turned on him when his wife has an affair with a young artist, Stefan. At first he spies on the lovers, and then, disguising himself, engineers himself a place in Stefan's home. But the obsession turns to friendship and partnership, with the low-achieving hippy, as Dorrie wildly takes the two men's motives apart. Reading centre for the unwaged Video course; Fridays 2-4 free. - - - REVIEW A Review of "True Stories", a film seen at South Hill Park (no longer on here), by David Byrne. "True Stories" is an affectionate look at the crassness of the "American Way" by David Byrne, lead singer of Talking Heads. He focuses on a quintessential backwater town, Virgil in Texas, and it is peopled, predictably, with "types" found all over the States, from the absurd to the obscene. The film takes the form of a guided tour of people and places in Virgil which The Narrator (David Byrne) talks us through in a deliberately deadpan way that becomes rather uninteresting as it wears on. It was entertaining (in spite of the predictability of some of the humour) and clever but not a great film, mainly because the lack of a story line made it somewhat disjointed. The music though, was good even if you don't like Talking Heads and it helped fill the gaps in the film. Part satire, part pop video, part surrealist fantasy, the film gave the impression it didn't really know what it wanted to be. It made its point. It was funny but it left me feeling at the end, so what? Americans are larger than life and less than sincere but this is, after all, a point that has been made before. Claire N. - - - EVENTS Sat 28th March * Lesbian night! at Montforts Winebar 29 Market Place, Reading. * Reading Campaign Against Benefit Cuts leafleting outside Tesco 9.30 till noon, about Maternity benefit changes, help- Graham 597317 Mon 30th March * Reading Green Party video show "The Threshold of Change" at St Mary's Centre, the Butts, 8pm. * PnD housing coop meeting. Tel: Cliff 665532 for details. Tue 31st March * Womens Information Centre; open for women's welfare rights advice 1-3pm, 6 Silver St. Also single mothers support group 5pm, get together for women 4 kids at tea time to share food & meet. At 6.30pm is the Womens Centre Collective meeting. All every Tuesday. Wed 1st April * Red Rag Collective Meeting!! your chance to get involved in Reading's Only Newspaper. New faces welcome, 56 Hamilton Rd. (Not an April Fools trick). * Conserve Reading On Wednesdays (CROW) doing wildlife garden work, new helpers welcome, transport from reading station 10am. Tel: Pete on 54798 for details. Thus 2nd April * Asian Womens Group: advice & information at the Womens Centre 2pm, 6 Silver St, every Thursday. * Socialist Workers Party talk: "Gays and the left." Friends Meeting House, Church St, 8pm. Fri 3rd April * International AIDS Day. Sat 4th April * Illegal march! Against police repression/public order laws, assemble 1pm Mallet St, London. * RCABC at Tescos: see 28th March. Mon 6th APRIL * Maternity Emergency Rally to protest at repeated state attacks on maternity benefits and rights: Central Hall, Westminster SW1. Wed 6th April * CROW: creating a wildlife area in Caversham, see April 1st. * Red Rag folding, Acorn 5pm ish!!! Thurs 7th April * Lesbian support group: first meeting to be held at the Womens Centre, 6 Silver St 7.30. Sat 11th April * Demonstration at Upper Heyford to resist USAF military base. Starts at Upper Heyford 9am goes to Cutteslowe Park Oxford. Then leaves Cutteslowe Park 2pm for rally in Oxpen field centre of Oxford. Transport from Reading tel: 67824. Sat 18th April * Gathering of the 5000! Conflict/crass/videos/stalls, a multi purpose benefit, Academy Brixton, Stockwell Road. 6pm. Fri 24th April * Reading's Gay Collective meeting 7.45pm. Putting out the newsletter and planning events, information from RGC Box 150 Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham St. Sat 25th April * CND (Coppers Narks on Demos) boredom crawl in London, usual place, yawn! Send your events to "Red Rag" c/o Acorn Books 17 Chatham St, Reading. That's it Erik - - - THEATRE GUIDE ...bit sparse this week... promise to improve... South Hill Park: Bracknell, tel 91 427272. Wilde Theatre - Berkshire Schools & Youth Theatre Festival / 24-27th March, 7.30pm. £2:00. * Tues 24th: The Silver Sword, by Stuart Henson-Shaw House School, Newbury. * Weds 25th: Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Dramatic Society's Production of Macbeth - Easthampstead Park School. * Thurs 26th: The Exception and The Rule (Brecht) - Brakenhale School, Bracknell, with production from Sir William Herschell, Slough. * Fri 27th: Spring Summer & Autumn, by John Basset - Reading Youth Theatre. Studio Theatre - lst-4th April. 7.30pm. £3:50(£2). * Surrey Heath Young Actors Company present The Lady's Not For Burning - by Christopher Fry. Wilde Theatre, 2nd-4th April. 7.30pm. £4 (£2.50). * Extemporary Dance Theatre. Highly recommended for those not familiar with dance. The Hexagon, Queens Walk, Reading: tel 591591. * 30th March - 4th April, 10.30am, 2pm, & 7pm - The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader - sequel to The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. £5:50 (£4). - - - REVIEW "Le Roi Se Meurt" ,by the French Dept, Faculty Of Letters theatre, University of Reading, 11.3.87. Reputed to be worthwhile in your alternative Reading guides, well perhaps they are if you're bilingual. Wolfgang the head of department took the leading role, as usual, putting perhaps too much emotion into his part. Many of Eugene Ionesco's clever theatrical structures shone above the production, although the actors appeared to handle their scripts perfectly adequately. The supporting play by Jean Tardieu, an illustrated lecture about linguistics proved simpler to understand. But big words in French are always similar to those in English. Well, how else am I supposed to review plays, when I can't understand the language? xxx Ian - - - There's a CAR BOOT SALE in Coley County Primary School on Saturday 28th March between 10am and 2pm. If you would like to sell stuff, the charge is £3:50 beforehand and £5:00 on the day. Otherwise come along to catch all the bargains. - - - LESBIAN SUPPORT GROUP Lesbian Support Group is to start meeting on Thursday April 9th, 7.30pm, at the Women's Centre, 6 Silver Street, Reading. - - - SMALL ADS (ARE FREE): * Child's swing (poles 8') £5 or free to playgroup. You collect. Phone 473205 Wed pm or weekend. * Wanted:- set of juggling clubs. Any offers phone Pete 54798. * Gathering coach passes from Henley, Reading and Wokingham for 30th March at London's Fulham Greyhound from Listen Records or Tel. Tim on Rdg. 340890. * Wanted: house to rent for 3, in Reading - tel. 666354 please!!! - - - There's going to be a SINGLE MOTHERS SUPPORT GROUP every Tuesday at 5pm (first one is on 31st March) at The Women's Information Centre, 6 Silver St., where women and children can get together at tea time to share food and meet and relax together. For further information contact Maureen McDermott at Reading 311939. - - - U.S. FOREIGN POLICY. Remember Libya! Protest March Saturday 11 April - The Long March: Assemble 8.45 am USAF Upper Heyford - The Short March Assemble lpm-2pm Cutteslowe Park Oxford Rally near City Centre Anniversary Vigil 6pm 14-Noon 15 April USAF Upper Heyford + NVDA on 15 April contact U.H. Peace Camp Organised by April Event c/o 34 Cowley Road Oxford 0x4 1hz Supported by CND - - - COMMUNICATE! Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the sheer banality and complete inadequacy of the mainstream media? Felt that you never get a chance to say what you want to say or to read the things that most newspapers wouldn't print? Most newspapers are owned by huge conglomerates. The same companies that produce even the supposedly 'local' papers own similar publications all over the country. Besides, these are fine if you want silly pet stories or collect pictures of the mayor. News and information-wise, they are a dead loss. If, not unjustifiably, you decide that these are not worth the paper they are printed on, you still have to deal with the freebies that pile relentlessly through the letter box, faster than you, could possibly send them back. Ten pages of adverts and some drunken bigot's editorial. The only alternative is to do it yourself. There is a lot of space for independent publications written by and put together by people who know what they are talking about and don't have any vested interests or massive profit margins to protect. If you're a community group, trying to get a message across want to let people know what you are doing, or just want to provide space for individual opinions, then what options are open? You don't have to be rich or even experienced to produce a newspaper, you just need something to say. A community newspaper is not difficult to put together. Come along and find out how on May 9th and 10th, when there will be a series of workshops at Reading Centre for the Unemployed, in East Street. There will be practical sessions on: * Writing news articles and press releases * Funding and advertising * Paste-up and design * Printing and duplication * Distribution and publicity There will also be discussion sessions and a social on the Saturday night. The workshops will be open to anyone, with perhaps a minimal charge if we cannot secure any funding. Contact (0734) 666354 for any further details or offers of help. No enrolment or graduation ceremonies guaranteed. - - - MAYDAY FESTIVAL PROGRAMME Rally 12.30 Forbury Gardens: the speakers include Jimmy Knapp (NUR) Dan Smith (CND) and local speakers March 1.15pm, town route with bands & floats: bring your banners. Festival 2.00pm, Reading Centre for the Unemployed: stalls, food, creche, childrens tea party, films, music, raffle. Social 7.30pm-late, Reading Centre for the Unemployed. African Night, with supper, guest speaker from the ANC, cabaret, poetry, disco, African band. Admission with supper £5/£3 no supper £2:50/£1 Mayday Organising Committee - ring 861305 or 667731 for more information. Sponsored by Reading Trades Union Council. This year the theme of the Mayday Festival is "Defend Your Public Services". It will be a day when you can use your democratic rights to protest against this government's policy on Public Service Cuts on the march and at the Festival. Mayday first became established in 1890 as an International Workers Holiday. On May 1st of that year the International Workers Congress backed the American delegates call, for an 8 hour day. They decided by resolution "to orqanise a great international demonstration so that in all countries, on one appointed day, the toiling masses shall demand an 8-hour day, and since May 1st has already been chosen by the American Federation of Labour, this day is accepted for the International demonstration." It is in this historical context that Mayday continues. In spite of the struggle of workers in the past, the struggle goes on. We are perpetually being pushed backwards while the ruling government today succeeds in taking away bit by bit!... our rights to even an 8-hour day; the right to decent housing; the value of our income; the right to a job & to decent public services. Working people must organise together and understand the full implications of these attacks on their living standards, and fight for democratic control over their own affairs. You can contribute to this progress at the Festival. - - - OFFICE DEVELOPMENT BOOM REACHES CRISIS POINT Pension funds and insurance companies are ripping Reading apart for profit, as they continue to invest billions of their policy-holders cash in "prime" property developments in the town. At least 600,000 square feet (ft2) of office space is on the market today, much of it in new concrete'n'glass boxes in the Kings Rd, Queens Rd, Caversham Rd and London St areas . That's just under the amount Reading Borough planners wanted to see developed over the years to 1996. The planning target is obsolete. Anyone walking around Reading can't miss the blocks of vacant shops, pubs and houses which will be smashed up and "redeveloped" when "the market is right". Or the cleared sites that cannot be hidden by advertising hoardings. Land and property being such private matters, it's next to impossible to say how much of Reading will be trashed by "developers" over the coming years. But it seems like nothing short of a market collapse will stop the rot. And that too would not solve anything unless it was the final crisis of capital in the Thames Valley. However, the Council have undertaken to allow schemes for 15 sites to go ahead that will total 370,000ft2... and that takes the total well over the planned figure. And then there is the daunting list of empty buildings and sites in the areas where there already are offices. Many of these are big sites: the old brewery, The Star, and the Kings Rd Pop Records, and more. There are over 30 blocks of boarded up buildings; it's impossible to say how many shops, pubs and houses which are still occupied are lined up for demolition. Following the Kings Rd or Queens Rd out of town, you find 9 finished empty office blocks (105750 ft2), and 4 more which are on the market but not yet finished off (174000 ft2). And 6 cleared sites (eg next to & opposite the library and next to the Cap & Gown), and at least 7 blocks of empty buildings, suggest that profit-making development is going to carry on well into the future. In the London St area there are 16 vacant buildings and a lot of developers trying to get planning permission at the moment - the Council is currently looking at applications for 3/11, 49/53, 654/58 London St, and for a site in East St. Many of these proposals are for 10000ft2+ schemes - much larger than the average London St scheme of the past. And now developers want to get into Crown St too - a 15000 ft2 office next to The Crown, and a 20000 ft2 scheme on Southampton St corner, have already been OK'ed by the Council. Then there's the town centre: current abominations include Bridge St Plaza on one half of the old brewery, a proposal for 200000ft2 on the other half, and the vile Apex Plaza (220000ft2 next to the station, partly built). The Council has committed itself - and the rest of us! - to office schemes on a large number of town centre sites. And it also has to deal with a surge of applications relating to other sites: eg the Co-op warehouse in Sackville St. So who's gaining and who's losing as the buildings of late 20th century capitalism take over from the environments of its previous eras? The pension funds and insurance companies push a set % of their receipts into "prime property". Office blocks in Reading are one of the few types of property which are "prime" enough. So, institutions are eager to put up the money for developments in Reading; their involvement gives them colossal landholdings in the town. Look at the names on the hoardings round office sites... Prudential, Legal & General, Pearl Assurance... The Prudential in particular have a lot of Reading on their books: they developed Dukes Bridge (£5m): they are developing Apex Plaza at the station (cost £25m... sale value £45m); they have big offices on The Forbury; as well as funding developments, they are major office tenants (taking 77000 ft2 in Abbey Gardens on the Kings Rd last year). And last year also saw them buy up Scotchbrooks estate agents - they now own 365 estate agents offices in the country as a whole. Their well-publicised charitable donations (eg the Royal Berks scanner appeal) can't hide the fact that they are increasing their influence in - and their rakeoff from - more stages of the property development process in Reading. The millions of pounds which roll into the coffers of such companies each day are directly responsible for Reading being trashed like it is. Equally responsible - and well rewarded - are the development companies, who take a cut of 20% of the value of the finished scheme, or 25% of the development costs. They are often builders too - eg JM Jones of Maidenhead, who own a number of other companies including hi-tech developers Beacontree Estates: as builders, they take the builder's cut too. Some developers are getting into housebuilding, as private housebuilding is a "necessary" consequence of hi-tech or office development; people who get good jobs(!) in the new offices in the area demand housing. Many major office tenants are greatly swayed by how much "good private housing" there is in an area for their key staff, should they relocate there. And of course, the insurance companies, banks and other elements of finance capital who rent the offices gain from all this: they have a profitable location for their business. One which allows them to use the latest microtechnology and the work practices that technology imposes. Just as the shop chains and the DIY store operators get the kind of premises they can make profit from. Profit Before People Highly qualified, young, upwardly mobile WASPs also gain by earning large salaries and getting into consumerism in a big way. They constitute an expanding market which justifies new shopping developments & leisure schemes, which generate profits for... etc. They also enjoy the road improvements, penthouse flats and winebars which Borough planners extract from developers as "planning gain", (to offset the negative community effects of the commercial development, in theory). One might ask who exactly it is who gains - like one might ask how come there aren't any winos in the architects drawings of the latest Kings Rd office. There are a lot of people who are not gaining much at all from all this. 5800 registered unemployed people; thousands of people who are not on the register but who have no paid work; hundreds of people who are homeless or in bed & breakfast joints; and the thousands of people who are in jobs which are part time or temporary, which are lowly paid, &/or which ignore health and safety rules. Thousands of people for whom the Silicon Valley bit is a sick joke. More home-owning, car driving yuppies on high incomes means less cheap housing, less rented housing, more council house sales, more congestion, a less economic public transport system... and so an increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots. The number of jobs in the "secondary" labour market is growing. Jobs like shelf-stacking in supermarkets, checkout work, in-store cleaning, cafes and winebars, office cleaning. All characterised by low pay (you are often better off on £20:80 a week from the DHSS), awkward hours, short hours or temporary contracts. Employment based on servicing the technology economy and the well-salaried elite who work with the technology. Such jobs may seem attractive because it's hard to make ends meet on the dole. But in many cases choice has nothing to do with it. Government policy is pushing people into doing the menial jobs which are essential to the profitable running of a consumer-capitalist economy like Reading's. Many such jobs are on government schemes: YTS, Jobstart Allowance, Jobclub, Enterprise Allowance and Job Training Scheme all get people into waged poverty. A "reformed" social security system and repeated hassle from the dole and DHSS adds to the pressure. Obviously, unemployment and poverty in Reading are not solely due to "the pressure of funds" from financial institutions investing in "prime property". National factors (including government employment policy) and international ones too are partly to blame. However, the Council's commitment to 375000ft2 of office development on approved sites, and continuing pressure from developers to get at cleared sites, the blocks of buildings which are empty at the moment, and to get at others too, will surely have an effect on people who live in Reading. With their limited powers to say yes or no to proposals for development and land use, the Borough planning department will have real problems avoiding complete disaster... Empire State Human. Pension Funds Trash Reading * Since writing this, your eagle-eyed scout has noticed more nasty developments... the amount of vacant office space in Reading town centre is about 700,000 square feet (ie already over the planners limit for future development), thanks to 22000 sq ft being to let on Dukesbridge (and another 2500!), 9000sq ft to let in Market Place, 12000 sq ft which I missed opposite the Tudor Arms, and Rockfort Land's 17000 sq ft heap in Minster St... and 4600 sq ft to let in Valpy Street... I'm sorry about being so inaccurate, but it's hard to keep track of it all. The figure for offices does not include "hi-tech" schemes such as 62500 sq ft (Kings Meadow Rd), nor the massive Speyhawk scheme for a Thamesside in Newtown (1.4 million square feet of hi-tech??). Low-level buildings on business parks which look like standard sheds but which have opulent interiors fit for office uses (hi-tech) present whole new, horrible possibilities for life in the Reading area over the coming years. And such is the speed of life round here that I must report that the long-vacant site next to the Cap & Gown was invaded by French Kier vans etc last week, so it looks like something is afoot there. If you want to find out what, there's a site notice about a planning application on the fence... rubble is flying in West St as the building next to Quest's is cleared out prior to redevelopment... and after trying to gently remove the tiles from the roof of the loos on Cemetery Junction, the contractors have run out of cool and are smashing them up as type... and the asbestos dust from the Alder Valley garage behind the Granby Cinema (as was, boo hoo) has hardly settled. Cough cough... - - - CONSPIRACY PRESS RELEASE A new Reading voluntary group celebrated its first successful year of fundraising with a cheque presentation to Radio 210's Give A Child A Chance Appeal on March 8th. 210's "Fence" presenter Barry O'Brien received a donation of £120 from members of The Conspiracy, who raised the cash in December at one of their many benefit concerts. Founder Member Emma Goldman explained: "The Conspiracy is a collective group of local people who aim to organise good, reasonably-priced live entertainment which raises money for local groups." Over 30 concerts in the past year have between them raised thousands of pounds for organisations like the Bennet Rd Special care Unit, the Silver Street Women's Centre, Reading Anti-Apartheid Campaign and the Palmer Park Adventure Playground. The Adventure Playground benefit concert raised £150 towards the purchase of play equipment for disabled people at the Playground, which staff officially received last month. "We also received a late birthday present from Reading Borough Council" added Jim Heatherhays, another member of The Conspiracy. "Their Small Grants Committee gave us £500 to support our activities, in particular to fund our DIY guide to music promotion in the Reading area, which will enable more people to put on events: this guide will be out very shortly." Also due to hit the streets soon is The Conspiracy tape, a compilation of 21 tracks by some of the 50-odd artists whom the group have presented over the past year. The Fence LP should be on sale in Listen Records in the Butts... and "The Conspiracy - The Tape" will be on sale shortly, more info from The Conspiracy, Box 1, Acorn. Musical Changes Well, when was the last time you heard music recorded by a Reading-area band? Are there any local bands you could bear to listen to? Promotion collective The Conspiracy and 210 local music programme/fanzine The Fence obviously think there are bands you all want to hear in the comfort of your own garret, because both of them are responsible for compilation tapes/LPs of local music. Mainly rock and pop music, by the way. The Fence's "Beyond The Fence Begins The Sky" was released on 13th March 1987 (a Friday), and showcases bands featured on the 210 Off The Wall programme. Bands include:- The Complaints, Too Sweet To Slick, The Thin Line, Beyond The Blue, Butch Minds The Baby, The Jeremiahs, Carolyn Shafran, In Berlin, One hand Clapping, Beat And The Devil, The Enamel Animals, Home And Abroad, and Rachel & Nicki ("The Beach Boys take on Siouxsie and lose....") Meanwhile, back at the ranch, The Conspiracy are putting the finishing touches to their inspirationally named product, "The Conspiracy - The Tape", which features 21 of the 50-odd bands they have put on in the 1st 10 months of their life. The tape features 7 local bands: Military Surplus, Funktion At The Junktion, The Gathering, The Masters Of Disaster, Jo Jo Namoza, and The Mere Mortals. The rest are by famous rock stars you'll all have heard of... all the recordings were done live at Conspiracy benefit gigs at the Paradise. Both compilations show that Reading has its share of creative musicians, (even though the rock/pop style is featured to the exclusion of most others, this just reflects the areas The Fence & Conspiracy often work in and I don't think either group would say "this all there is"...), and it would be good if other tapes followed. Emma explained: "The C-90 tape includes tracks by The Three Johns Robyn Hitchcock, and the Frank Chickens, as well as local bands like Namoza, Military Surplus and The Gathering. Like our gigs, the point of the tape is good fun at reasonable prices." "We are especially interested in working with local bands," added Jim. "If there are any in the area who want to send The Conspiracy their demo tape or other information, our address is Box 1, 17 Chatham Street, Reading. We'll be very pleased to hear from them." Local fanzine Utterance summed up many local music fans' feelings thus: "It's not only the causes that benefit. It's the people who enjoy seeing live bands, because whenever The Conspiracy go quiet for a while, Reading's small local music scene really suffers. Because, you see, too many people just can't be bothered: they'd rather just sit and moan that nothing's happening!" Mark 666354 as contact. - - - FULL MOON FUTONS We make Japanese style mattresses (single, double, king size, cot size), cushions, pillows, yoga/massage/Shiatsu mats, to individual orders. All 100% cotton, range of colours. Pine bases. Deliveries arranged. Competitive prices. Send sae for leaflet and swatches to: 20 Bulmershe Road, Reading RG1 5RJ. Reading (0734) 65648. - - - MUSIC FOR FOLK Another folk-packed fortnight for you. Thurs 26L Maidenhead Folk Club at the Rose, King St have Mal Waite, who's a woman, a singer and song-writer of whom I hear good things. Pressgang at the Cap & Gown, Kings Rd have a country & western flavour with Terry Clarke and Lost Weekend. It'll be good. £1 pre-9.30, £1:50 after as usual. Sat 28: Bracknell also have Mai Waite, in the South Hill Park Cellar Bar. Sat 28: West End Centre, Queens Rd, Aldershot - Ric Saunders & Simon Nicol with Mark T & Brickbats. Sun 29: Readifolk at the George, corner of Broad St, have a singers' night which is cheap, or free if you perform. Lots of local talent about. The club's just done a questionnaire to find out what people do & don't like; a good move on their part & great fun to fill in! Mon 30: Bread & Roses are at the Bull, High St, Nettlebed. They're a quartet of local women with a range of strong and varied voices between them, also harmonium, concertina and dulcimer, doing largely women-oriented material. Excellent harmonies. Tues 31: Fleet, at the Fox & Hounds, Crookham Road is Roger Wilson who's apparently young and good and going places - British & American trad material on voice, guitar & fiddle. Oxford: The Oyster Band at the Oxford Football Supporters' Club. £3:25. Details 0865/511620. The Turk's Bottom Club at the Cap & Gown in Kings Rd aren't booking anyone famous till the university, with which they have a mysterious relationship, starts up again in May. Then they've got Rory McLeod. Meanwhile they're giving a chance to budding (is that the word?) local artists, starting with Liz Hodgson tonight. That's me, so it's a bit hard to know what to say, except that everyone who's ever said "I've never heard you sing" now has no excuse. OK? Wed 1: The Drones Club at the Plough, Long Wittenham and the Eversley Cross Club, at the Toad & Stumps, will both have something, I know not what. In case the excellent "Live & Direct" compiler's missed it or taken it as an April Fool, let me remind you that Courtney Pine will be playing the saxophone at our very own Hexagon for £5:50/£6:50. Back to folk... Thurs 2: Prejsgang have Clive Pig, a singer/writer with "real edge", they tell me. Plus Damian from Pressgang in support. Sat 4: Tom O'Farrell at Bracknell, a guitarist who sounds like the goods, minimal patter and a range of material including Irish tunes. At Haddenham near Aylesbury (details 0422 822569) there's an evening with Red Shift, an explicitly Northern Band, energetic and left who do half the evening as a concert & the other half as a dance. They include the very excellent Pete Coe. They're also on at Farnham tomorrow, but you don't need to travel for good music on... Sun 5: because Readifolk have got June Tabor and Martin Simpson, to make up for the time June was ill last autumn. If you like either her singing or his guitar do go because the empathy between them is a delight. If you've not heard either, you can't go far wrong. But either, get a ticket the week before or be absurdly early. Mon 6: Nettlebed have Chronicle, a local harmony band who I don't, personally, rate but maybe I'm just prejudiced against people who look uncomfortable when they sing. Don't mind me. Tues 7: Turk's B; Singers' Night. This is, incidentally, the least intimidating place to have a go round here at the minute, being a smaller venue than the George. Thurs 9: Third Degree Burns at Maidenhead! 3 women not unlike Proper Little Madams. Sharp and avant garde. Pressgang'll have someone. Forthcomings: Capercaillie from Scotland at the West End Centre, Aldershot (l6th), Jim Jiminee free at the Hexagon (midday Sat 25), Farnham Folk Day with a range of mainly male but none the less interesting acts, including the Easy Club, Rory McLeod, Peta Webb & Pete Cooper, Maggie Holland & Dave Parry, Dick Gaughan, the inevitable Oysters, John Kirkpatrick & Sue Harris, kora players from the Gambia, Hassan Erraji from Morocco whose percussion playing in particular is uncanny, and more. £9 on the day; £8 pre Mar 31st from FMS, PO Box 73, Farnham, Surrey. This is on April 26, a Sunday. - - - LIVE & DIRECT Well, greetings to everyone and it s a lovely sunny morning in spite of the fact that the gas bill (£150) has just arrived... it's only a blue one, so don't panic... live and direct delights this time include TV Smith, "Good dance music at the Paradise on Mondays, lots of music for Imperial Space Cabbages... and perhaps Jah Shaka... so... Weds 25 March: * Cartoons, Gun St - Sometimes Sartre, 8pm and free. Bands get paid a % of bar takings, so take your drinking hat with you. * Nino's, Duke St - La Tariffe and International Rescue (garage blues thrash) No dress restictions. * Hex - Richrd Digance in conversation Thurs 26: * Cap and Gown - The Pressgang Club NB £1 before 9.30pm. * SHP - local bands evening in the Cellar Bar, 8-11, 75p/£1:50. Fri 27: * Paradise, 112 London Street - The Gathering (Going places) and City Limits (70's R'n'r/own songs) £2 before 10pm / £3. * Music to Saute your brain to... the legendary Ozric Tentacules play at Basingstoke Caribbean Assoc for Joint Promotions... * Polish Club, London Rd, entry via Eldon Terrace. Jive Alive (fine mixture of dance musics) and The Larkins (rockandrollparty!!) £2 to get in and the first band should be on at 9ish. * Cap & Gown - Essential Bare £2.. Oh Sat 28: * Montforts Wine Bar, Market Place - Womanzone, a women only night. * Cap & Gown - Cracking The Pain £2 * Hex - The Hollies!!! Sscreeeaammmm! Sun 29: * Radio 210 - The Fence? No...sorry, that's next week. It's Off The Wall from 7-8pm with local bands tapes and witty DJ chat. Mon 30: * Paradise - The After Dark All Stars (4 piece resident dance band, plus anyone who wants to jam along), and Second Emotion. £3:50? * Fulham Greyhound, London - The Gathering (local heroes). For details of coach, ring Tim on 340890. Tues 31: * Cartoons - The Gathering, 8pm, free. A rare opportunity to see The Gathering for nowt. Guitar based "New Rock". * Cap & Gown - Turks Bottom Folkies. * Turks Head - Jazzz at 9ish and get there at opening time to ensure a seat. * SHP - Jazz with Human Chain: Django Bates (keyboards/tenor horn) and Steve Arguelles. £2:75/£1 off for UB40s. 8pm start. Weds 1 April: * Red Rag Collective Meeting 8pm at 56 Hamilton Rd. All welcome, and that means Everybody. * Paradise - The Conspiracy present TV Smith (ex Adverts) and the Mudcats (anyone who can do Diddy Wah Diddy and sound like Capt. Beefheart is fine by me): £2:50 / £2 for UB40s. * Cartoons - The Barbel Bros, 8pm free. * Ninos, Duke Street - Killing The Rose * Hex - "Hottest new jazz find" (hype) Courtney Pine. 8pm, £6:50 / £5:50 Thurs 2 April: * Paradise - Well, the best dub sound system in the world should be playing... if you haven't seen Jah Shaka yet, make it a date and don't be late. Truly inspirational. * Cap & Gown - The Pressgang Club: £l before 9pm. * SHP - live music from local bands in the Cellar Bar. 8-11, 75p / £1:50. Fri 3: * Paradise - The Magic Mushroom Band (hello Gary!) Will their classic Restart Song feature amongst their set of spacy Battenburg Treats? Also, The Ray Sisters and Van Gogh's Ear. * Cap & Gown - AGM Fish. Hmmm Sat 4: * Cap & Gown - Blues Cruise (blues) £2 * Copy deadline for the next issue of Red Rag. Sun 5: * Radio 210 sounds of your "life"... Off The Well and The Fence inna Reading style... local bands, gigs and stuff between 7 & 8pm. * Is It Worth Getting Up? Mon 6: * After Dark at the Paradise Club - Taxi Pata Pata (Congolese & Senegalese musicians) & After Dark All Stars. Looks great. £3:50 too, which is reasonable given the costs... Tues 7: * Salisbury - (not sure where) Milisurp RDF (Radical Dance Faction) play out Roots and Creation, Hungerford style * Turks Head - Bring-an-oxygen-bottle-jazz-night. * Cartoons - Original Sin, 8pm free. * Cap & Gown: Turks Bottom Folk Club. * SHP - Pete Aliens Cellar Bar 5, whom I heard on Radio 2 recently and they were very annoying. Weds 8: * Next issue of Red Rag out tonight: how did it happen? Not by magic, that's for sure... * Cartoons - Killing The Rose * Nino's, Duke St - a couple of local bands, 8-12, free and no loony dress restrictions. Sorry, no more details... Thurs 9: * Cap & Gown - The Pressgang Club. £1 before 9.30pm. * Hex - Lunchtime music with Clare Deniz (cello) & Paul Turner (Pianner) 1.10 and free. Fri 10: * Paradise - Someone who used to be in The Sex Pistols? * Cap & Gown - The Blank Generation. £2 Nothing to do with Richard Hell. Sat 11: * Cap & Gown - The Mudcats; ace garage blues/rockabilly. £2. * Oi Oi Oi... Joint Promotions are presenting The Angelic Upstarts(!!) White Speed (truly loathsome) and Condemned 84 at the Priestley Rd Caribbean Assoc. in Basingstoke. * Hex - Midday music with Gypsy Jazz 12.15pm and free. Gosh, isn't the Hexagon wunnnnerful??? Sun 12: * Happy Birthday to Mike, & Happy Birthday to Abi. * 210 - The Fence / Off The Wall 7-8pm. Mon 13: * After Dark At The Paradise Club - The After Dark AllStars & top London salsa band El Sonido de Londres. 8-late, £3:50. A good dance night!! Key: * Cartoons: Gun St, behind Heelas, tel. 500905 /* Cap & Gown: Kings Rd, opposite Reading Tech, tel. 586006 /* The Majestic: Caversham Rd, tel.586093 but don't expect miracles /* The Paradise Club: 112 London Street, tel. 576847 /* SHP is South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell, tel (91) 427272 /* Hex is our beloved Hexagon Theatre, Queens Walk, tel. 591591. * Coming Soon Dept... Well, on April 18th there's Attila The Stockbroker and John Otway at the Caribbean Assoc, Priestley Rd in Basingstoke, another Joint Promotion... on the 15th The Pink Fairies and The Magic Mushroom Band play a pixie and hobbit ball at the Majestic, Caversham Rd.... and the week after, on the 21st April, the same promoter has Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction at the Majestic again (tickets from Listen, in The Butts)... Sorry about the lack of detail for some venues, but lots of people were out/didn't know/it's not my job anyway mate... any info most gratefully received @Box 79, Acorn Books, 17 Chatham Street. - - - THE FRUITS OF THE EARTH Trader's Shopping Centre, Station Road, Reading Specialists in Organic, Caribbean, African and S. American Fruit & Veg, Herbs, Spices, Pulses at Competitive Prices. Delivery & Wholesale Supplies Available. Telephone Reading 587660 - - - HOW TO TALK LIKE A SITUATIONIST 1. Learn French. No self-respecting situationist would dream of not knowing it. 2. Always use the most obscure language possible. Get lots of big scholarly words from a dictionary and use them often. Poor: "Things are bad." Better: "The formative mechanism of culture amounts to a reification of human activities which fixates the living and models the transmission of experience from one generation to another on the transmission of commodities: a reification which strives to ensure the past's domination over the future." 3. In particular, the words "boredom" (as in "there's nothing they won't do to raise the standard of boredom"), "poverty" (of the university, of art), and "pleasure" are important tools in the young situationist's kit, and use of them will greatly enhance your standing in the situationist community. 4. Make frequent reference to seventy-year-old art movements like Dado and Surrealism. Work the subject into your conversations as often as possible, however irrelevant. 5. Vehemently attack "The University" and "Art" whenever possible (phrases like "the scrap-heap of Art" or "the stench of Art" are particularly effective). Attend as prestigious a school as possible and make sure your circle of friends contains no less than 85 per cent artists. 6. Cultivate a conceit and self-importance bordering on megalomania. Take credit for spontaneous uprisings in far-flung corners of the world, sneer at those who oppose or disagree with you. 7. Denounce and exclude people often. Keep your group very small and exclusive - but take it for granted that every man, woman, and child in the Western Hemisphere is intimately familiar with your work, even if no more than ten people actually are. 8. Detournement: Cut a comic strip out of the paper (serious strips like Terry and the Pirates and Mary Worth are preferred), and change the dialogue. Use lots of situationist language. What fun! 9. Use Marxian reverse-talk. This is a sure-fire way of alerting people to the fact that you are a situationist or are eager to become one. "The irrationality of the spectacle spectacularizes rationality," "separate production as production of the separate." 10. Invoke "the proletariat," factories, and other blue-collar imagery as often as possible, but do not under any circumstances associate with or work with real proletarians. (Some acceptable situationist jobs are: student, professor, artist.) 11. By all means avoid such repugnant proletarian accoutrements as: novelty baseball hats, rock group T-shirts, Garfield or Snoopy posters (no matter how "political"), and vulgar American cigarettes like Kent or Tareyton. From Shoe Polish Week. 195 Garfield Pl. 2-L, Brooklyn, New York 11215. - - - (paid ads) Harris Arcade, Station Road, Reading 588425 Designer Knitwear, Fashion Jewellery, T-shirt printing FOR SOCIALLY UNADJUSTED PEOPLE - - - GRAPHIC ARTIST Black and white line drawings, illustrations, cartoons and caricatures of your choice, for your business, organisation or home. Commissions to order: any subject, any size, any quantity. Phone John Liepins 50481. - - - The Paradise Club 9 till late Arthur Micks presents MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND The Ray Sisters Van Gogh's Ear Friday 3 April £3:50 £3:00 UB40 dead cheap Advance tickets £2:50 Acorn Bookshop - - - Animal Rights Benefit Do Not Adjust Your Head TV SMITH Mudcats Paradise Club 112 London St Wednesday 1 April £2:50 / £2 (UB40) Tickets: Acorn, Pop Records, Listen - - - $Id: //info.ravenbrook.com/user/ndl/readings-only-newspaper/issue/1987/1987-03-24.txt#3 $