2950 - Old wave

Not done much today, mainly just reading
Through the Encyclopedia of New Wave
The author's American, he's using
A Yank definition of who to save
For inclusion, and who not. Meanings weave
In and out as you fly the Atlantic
Different interpretations, some which they've
Adapted and altered from historic
UK roots. We before that twisted, tricked
Continental words, subtly transforming
The Latin sound and meaning to less suave
Maybe, the Anglo-Saxon Germanic
Brutalising the mellifluous ring
To that monotonous drone that we have

2469 - Three types of death

Last night I turned on the TV at ten
To watch the news just before Question Time
After a long play on my guitar, when
I saw that Nelson Mandela, that fine
Leader of South Africa, had declined
And died that evening, tributes flowed freely
This evening the World Cup draw almost signed
England's death warrant. They play Italy
In Manaus, Brazil's hot jungle city
Then down to Sao Paulo, struggle again
Against seeds Uruguay, and then more flying
To Belo Horizonte, bit more easy
This time, Costa Rica they're up against
Feedback not good for act on 29th

2387 - Love and Haiti

Wet Sunday, raining all over this land
Finished 'The Comedians' by Graham Greene
(Nothing to do with comedy, my man)
It was quite like 'The Quiet American'
But whereas that was set in Vietnam
In this later novel, Haiti's the scene
The tension of the Papa Doc regime
Staying alive, post-Castro Caribbean
Always the fear of armed revolution
Lyndon Johnson supporting any scheme
That wasn't Communistically planned
The good old bad old days, Soviet regime
Post-Stalinist shadows in East Berlin
How strange it all ended under Reagan!

Papa Doc

2299 - Happiness is a warm pool of blood on the classroom floor

The world's still here, sorry, silly losers
The Mayan calendar's end's not the world's
And never was. Funny how there's always
Mad egotists who want all of life spoiled
Maybe next time, losers! Sorry! Meanwhile
In the United States of Armaments
After the latest shooting at high school
This time in Connecticut, more offence
And ridicule will follow the statement
Of the NRA - more guns, not less, yes
That's the answer. Doh! Think I'm going to hurl
A rifle up their fat asses. Judgement
Of the world - they're crazy motherfuckers
May their happy warm guns grow sad and cold

2227 - On the road, on the track, on the runway

These are the countries I've been to so far -
All parts of the UK, also Ireland
France (mainly north, but also Basque area)
Austria briefly, twice to Switzerland
Liechtenstein, Belgium, Germany, Holland
Friendly northern Portugal, much of Spain
Some Italian cities, Slovenia, and
Eastern Greece, western Turkey by both train
And bus, the USA, but tried in vain
To see the Falls over in Canada
Next month I'll add both Denmark and Sweden
Maybe Hungary next year. Hop on a plane
Enjoy the view from way up in the air
Drive through strange towns, from trains observe the land

2179 - Spider's website

No luck yet on the dating front. I have
Ignored one message from America
What the fuck is the point of being in love
With someone that far away, I ask you?
It's wasted time - maybe they don't have a
Good grasp of geography? I'm English
And live in the north west, in Manchester
If you've got your rod out and want to fish
Please remember I'm in the Isles British
Stick to your own continent, big enough
And populous enough for you, I'm sure
Right now, singing about love, it's Otis
He'd have gone on dating websites full of
Women of all kinds, some less prettier

2010 - Turkey trot

The tallest building now stands in Dubai
The Haiti earthquake destroys Port-au-Prince
Polish president's plane falls from the sky
Iceland eruption removes pilots' wings
BP oil well blows, causing huge Gulf slicks
EU bailout for Greece, Spain wins World Cup
In South Africa. Many Wikileaks
Pakistan monsoon floods, miners brought up
In Chile. What is North Korea up
To? EU loan for Ireland - that's where I
Drive to with two mates - Sheep's Head, West Cork - it's
Pretty in summer. An Amsterdam trip
Then Athens, Delphi, Thessaloniki
And Istanbul by bus, carpets, mad flings

2008 - Financial and other black holes

Petroleum hundred dollars per barrel
Stock market falls after US subprime
Crisis. Aussie PM Kevin Rudd tells
Them sorry for child-stealing. Bank crash time
Northern Rock and Lehman Brothers. Debt climbs
In Greece and Ireland. Fidel resigns, Raul
Takes over the family firm. They decline
The Lisbon Treaty in Ireland - they will
Get it right the second time. Meanwhile, Bill
Gates steps down. The Beijing Games go so well
CERN in Geneva, concerns of malign
After-effects, could create a black hole
Out with young Vicky from Oldham, oh well
Split, saw P in Paris, Barack did fine

Written Sun 4 March

2002 - Blonde bombshells

The euro's in use. No Child Left Behind
Says Bush, but Daniel Pearl, he truly is
Princess Margaret and the Queen Mum are found
Dead in their beds. The Afghan war raises
More dust. Bombs in Israel, which then enters
The West Bank once again. It's Jacques Chirac
Better than Le Pen, perhaps. The Far East
Hosts the World Cup. Golden Jubilee - Buck
House echoes to live rock. The Germans tick
A Schroder-Greens coalition. The sound
Of bombs in Bali. A Moscow theatre's
Held by Chechens. Brazil's Lula's in luck
Will Saddam heed UN, or is he blind?
Me and my blonde lady - she enlarges

2001 - Towering infernoes

Wikipedia and foot and mouth are here
Ariel Sharon comes, Milosevic goes
Nepalese prince shoots king and family there
Koizumi, strange-haired chief of Japanese
Israel wedding disaster, and Hamas
Bomb a Tel Aviv disco. Musharraf
Pres of Pakistan, riots on Genoese
Streets at G8, and Peruvians get tough
With Fujimori. New York's smoking cough
As twin towers topple. Patriot Act calms fear
And Afghans invaded - the West soon throws
The Taliban out of Kabul, will have
To battle on and on. Taxi driver
At weekends, my number of girlfriends grows

2000 - Keep on moving

The dot-com bubble is about to burst
Lethal injector Doctor Shipman's shopped
Playstation 2 is launched, let's all be first
Putin's president, meanwhile Microsoft
Guilty of unfair practice. Senor Fox
Mexican Pres, and Bashar al-Assad
Takes over from his dad. A fire stops
Concorde's flight in Paris. News of the World
Campaigns against paedos. Russian sub drowned
Sydney Olympics, UK fuel protests
Al Qaeda blows up US ship. Bush propped
Up by Supreme Court, Gore gored. The Dome's had
It. Poor Kirsty MacColl, that was the worst
Thing. Me, I rent my house out and change jobs

1998 - Omagh God

Saddam opposes inspections, then caves
Water on the Moon? Good Friday, Belfast
Suharto goes, Pakistan misbehaves
With nukes, Tsar and kin reburied at last
French World Cup, Congo war, Yangtze outsplash
US embassies bombed, East Africa
Omagh high street bombed, meanwhile Google starts
Hugo Chavez wins in Venezuela
Deaths of Pol Pot, Ted Hughes, Frank Sinatra
George Michael caught in Beverly Hills lav
Tommy Lee beats Pammy. I run quite fast
Up and down Snowdon, and round Stockport where
I now live, with a lodger, and I have
A second job (promoted in my first!!)

1997 - You can run, but...

Divorce finds Ireland, Tamil Tigers fight
Algerian war and Tupac in Peru
Hale-Bopp Comet, suicide at Heaven's Gate
Versace shot and Blair PM, woo-hoo
Bertie Ahearn hello, bye Mobutu
Hong Kong goes back to China, and Di dies
Louise shakes baby, Teresa dies too
Scots and Welsh parliaments soon, French truck strikes
Block ports, hello to Mary McAleese
Luxor shootings, Kyoto saves climate
JK Rowling and Philip Pullman do
Kids sci-fi, Titanic and Girls of Spice
Mike Tyson bites an ear, I run up quite
Tall hills, drive my green Ford, and move anew

1994 - From the Yorkshire Moors to the West Bank

Bosnia's still a seething cauldron of hate
The Scream is stolen, oh no, oh Oslo
Fred and Rose West, don't go inside their gate
Baruch Goldstein and Kurt Cobain's gun show
Somalia's a failure, say US. Whoa -
Berlusconi wins in Italy and
Andreotti had Mafia links. Don't go
To Rwanda, they're chopping off their hands
And killing in the churches. Nelson Mand-
ela President. John Smith dies, Blair takes
Job from Brown. OJ Simpson, drive more slow
US lands in Haiti, and Brazil lands
USA World Cup, IRA placate
I head north by bike, and love to video

1990 - Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble

Manuel in Panama is treated rough
Stasi HQ, Berlin, records surveyed
Soviet satellite states, they've had enough
Nelson Mandela walks out of the shade
Anti-poll tax fights and Europe have made
Maggie vulnerable to the circling sharks
Strangeways prisoners up on the roof, they've stayed
There three weeks. The Hubble stares at the stars
Yemen unites, IRA shoots soldiers
On Lichfield station platform, a real duff
World Cup Final and a Mecca stampede
Iraq invades Kuwait, Germany is
One, Thatcher goes... and Louis starts his life
I start work as a VAT Man and get paid!

1989 - Abroad thoughts from home

Hirohito he goes, here's Sky TV
PW to FW, SA
Exxon Valdez oil, blood, Tbilisi
Hillsborough crush, bye Ayatollah K
Tiananmen Square, Solidarity
Aung San Suu Kyi, Nintendo, Menendez
East German demo's, porous Hungary
Honecker goes, the Wall falls and the Czechs
The Bulgars and Romanians win their chess
Games against Big Brother, Brazil, Chile
Elections, Batman, Remains of the Day
Bye Robin Day, hello Paxman, distress
Of Rita in Blackpool (Alan Bradley)
I pass job interview, waste time away

1985 - I'm so excited with the USA

IRA bombs RUC in Newry
Chile earthquake, a million left homeless
Beirut car bomb, AIDS blood tests come to be
Gorbachev is chief of the Soviets
And with Ronnie in Geneva he meets
Bradford football fire, Heysel disaster
Schengen ends border checks, some EU states
Rainbow Warrior, hole in the ozone layer
Live Aid by top bands, Back to the Future
Nintendo's Super Mario, look through the
Windows from Microsoft. I'm engaged as
I fly off to Long Island for a year
At New York State Uni, Old Westbury
Drinking, smoking, snogging... and some studies

1984 - Marvin, the dead can dance

The Apple Mac lives and Andropov dies
The year-long British coal strike starts, Scargill
Against Thatcher. Old Tommy Cooper dies
'Just like that...' and Yvonne Fletcher is killed
Indian troops storm the Sikhs' Golden Temple
Amritsar, and Indira Gandhi's killed
In revenge. The LA Olympics held
Reagan jokes about bombing Russia, old
Cold war humour. The Nicaraguan polls
Show the Sandinistas have won the prize
Thousands killed by chemicals in Bhopal
The bombing of Thatcher's Brighton hotel
Reagan beats Mondale, Ethiopia dies
And American Studies going well

1982 - Fun on the dole

A plane crashes into the Potomac
UK unemployed over 3 million
Laker crashes and Haughey's the Taoiseach
Chariots of Fire, the Argentines land on
The Falklands, Gotcha, Rejoice, we have won!
Villa Euro Champs, the World Cup in Spain
Prince William and the SDP are born
Geoffrey Prime, Sun Myung Moon, Michael Fagan
IRA bombs London, Beirut camps shame
Schmidt becomes Kohl, we're rolling down the track
From Calella to Barcelona in
September sunshine, Mary Rose regained
Brezhnev expires, CD players, Mike Jack-
son's Thriller, Grace dies, The Tube and Countdown

1981 - Class of '81

Greece joins EC, and earthquake in Athens
Hostages released, deal struck by Reagan
Poland has martial law against unions
Brand new stainless steel car, De Lorean
Tejero waves his gun around in Spain
And I go on a school camping trip there
Reagan shot, Bobby Sands self-starvation
London Marathon, Buck's Fizz, streets on fire
In Brixton and Toxteth, Columbia
Space shuttle, Pope shot, in France Mitterand wins
Yorkshire Ripper jailed, AIDS, Ian Botham
Charles and Di, MTV, Sadat beware
CIA helps Contras, Marley succumbs
Tom Baker morphs into Pete Davison