New music for old people

Ok lets be honest, I've just turned 64, which if your young must seem pretty ancient, well I suppose it is, but not if your 64. It's a sort of cruel trick that life plays out on you that in your head your forever young. Even though I've only got about six of my own teeth left and my bald patch is growing faster than my hair, my laughter lines have become permanent fixtures, and I walk the valleys now instead of heading for the mountain tops.
But the one place where I know I've aged is when I try to find some decent music to listen to on the radio or on the net. Ok, I thought that being a musician I would always be hip to what's happening but to tell you the truth I lost the will to keep up a long time ago. Hip-hop, Techno, Garage, Dubstep, House, grunge etc. etc. has passed me by and left me cold, stone cold, and I hear my father echo in my ear. Where's the tune, I can't hear the words, or if I can they're rubbish, or just too offensive/aggressive crap.
This I realise is just a syndrome of growing older, and with age comes a certain mellowness. Not that I don't like a tune with a bit of fire, a crashing of guitars now and then but I must admit to these days liking stuff thats easier on the ears. Mind you I was always a sucker for Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby Stills and Nash, Jackson Brown, The early Eagles stuff, so maybe I'm just returning to my roots. Problem is when I want to find that sort of new music, I turn on the radio and it's not there, or very rarely I bought the Elbow album last year, now that was great, and new, but it's so difficult to find. So what does a man of taste do to discover new stuff that turns me on, as they used to say back in the days of peace and love.

Lets put new music for old people into google and see what we get. OMG. The kirkgate centre in Cockermouth, which I've played at with the Lakes Blues band back in 2000 was putting on a series of over 60's nights, and what were they going to be presenting. A evening of swing band concerts, SWING!!!!, that really floored me. The swing era was dead and gone before I was born in 1948, Ok maybe it hung on by it's fingernails till the early fifties but for me it was dads music, hey we were the new generation and we had Rock n Roll, we didn't do swing, for gods sake. So who on earth was arranging these evenings, some 30 year old who thought that 60 year olds would want old peoples music. NO, we want proper music, Heartbreak Hotel, Goodness gracious Great balls of fire, not In the bloody mood. wrong wrong wrong!

Another link and I find that somebody is catering for older people, they've started a radio station for the over 30s'. The over thirties, they're not old they're hardly out of nappies, They say there's just no good music about these days, not like the hay days of the 80's, so there you go another blow to being old, now I realise I'm really ancient, almost fossilised.
But then I find out that there's about 77 million of us out there, were the baby boomers and the media thinks that we've gone away, drifted into a world of pipe and slippers and the antique road show. Well let me tell you we've still got a lot of living to do and that living needs a soundtrack to live by. I for one don't want to dig out all my old vynal records and replay them to relive the memories of my youth. Now and again it's nice to revisit them now and again but what I need is new music, new music that is a bit like my old music, I suppose.  That's the rub, I want interesting stuff by accomplished musicians doing songs that have, what we used to call soul, something in there that touches my heart, makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise, or just moves me enough to rock gently back and forth in my rocking chair. No I don't have a rocking chair, and I don't move as well as I used to, in fact thinking about it I never did move too well, but you know what I mean, dancing was never my forte, even at 20 I danced like a granddad.
So here I am at 64, rehearsing with my band, The Beat Combo, and about to cut another album of original tunes and I'm thinking there must be loads of us out there. We're still writing songs, moving in our own time, and reflecting the world as we now see it. A world in all it's hideous complexity, it's irony, where what was once possible is now tinged with the acceptance of wisdom, that things might not work out like our innocence of the 60's thought they would. Love Love Love, turned into endless stupid wars, and all those protest songs in the end achieved nothing, the rich got richer and the poor carried on being poor, and the world turned.

All I wanted was to find that oasis of talent that is touching 60 or even seventy that was still out there treading the boards, making music that I want to listen to, to help me cope in the madness that we create. I know that we are here, there must be millions of us, baby boomers, who never graced the top twenty but who still have a tale to sing, a story to tell. It's just that we're swamped by the now generation. The young are easier to sell to and so thats where the money and the media go to target their pointless products. Us oldies  have seen it done it, have got the "T" shirt and won't get fooled again. So maybe that's why there is so little music for us to discover on the radio, or on the net, there's just no money in it. Money makes the world go around, that clinking clanking sound.
New music for old people, That's a radio station I want to hear, there's enough stuff out there for the kids, it's about time we boomers stood up and shouted, where's our stuff, cause we need that soundtrack all the way to the grave, and it's not swing or even nostalgic 50s' and 60s' we want now music for now oldies. Thank you for listening.

That's all folks

Soon it will be local election time, I think it's May 3rd and if all goes to plan this will be my final few weeks as a town councillor. I'm standing as a candidate in North ward, which is staunch conservative, and which was Colin Hodgesons' ward for many years. He is no longer with us, but it's highly unlikely that I will get elected, unless of course they like voting for a Colin to represent them.
The fact that the local elections for town councillors are decided along party political lines seems a complete nonsense to me, but that is the reality.

When I first walked through that oversized door into the big room, where we all sit to debate and wrestle with the big questions of the day, I was struck by the layout of the seating. This arrangement of a semi circle of school desks divided by a central aisle with the conservatives on the right and Labour on the left struck me then as archaic. In fact the furniture is certainly archaic, probably turned out somewhere in the distant past of the nineteenth century, not even the 20th.
And then there's the dias where the Mayor of the day sits with their deputy to one side, lording it over us like a courtroom judge on a dilapidated throne and on another piece of outdated oak furniture.

The "chamber" as it's pompously  called has seating for, oh I don't know, about 40 or more councillors and a back row that can house perhaps another 20 people. This last row is often reserved for members of the public but on 99% of our meetings you'll be lucky if you see anyone in these seats. Oh, now that's not quite true as we do seem to have a couple of regular ladies, of a certain age, who come most weeks. What they find more exciting here than on radio 4 I've got no idea, maybe they both have a highly developed sense of humour and find our deliberations somewhat amusing and exciting. I was going to say perhaps they should get out more, but perhaps they do, this being the start of their week, they then build up slowly through the week with a literary group, a poem and a pint, culture at the Coro, and finish up the week on Saturday night at some rave or perhaps more apt, a wild ceilidh. Sundays will be spent in meditation no doubt, at the priory before starting back on Mondays with our lot.  Although as we only do every fortnight, I wonder what they do on that fallow Monday, stay in with a bottle of gin perhaps, and contemplate the minutes of our last meeting.
Only joking Ladies, at least you bother to come which is more than can be said for the rest of the population.

I once suggested that we should get rid of these pews and replace them with something a bit more modern. At this suggestion one Tory councillor almost had a heart attack. You can't do that it's part of our heritage, it's our tradition. It's old and tatty, that's what it is. It is arranged in such a way that if the public should choose to attend they have to talk to our backs. Oh I know they are supposed to be addressing the Mayor but it has always felt rude and disrespectful to me, I always shift around and try to make eye contact, or at least let them know I'm listening to them.
And the fact that we have about 2/3rds of the seats empty doesn't look too good. This arrangement may have worked 50 years ago when we were Ulverston Urban District Council but today we only have 18 councillors in total, and the number of times we've all been present I could count on half a hand. I don't see any reason why we couldn't have a big table where we all face each other, at least we could then hear what we are saying. What we all seem to be doing is talking to the wall, not each other, apologies to the Mayor there, I didn't mean to implore that you were a wall, just my opinion of the archaic set up of our council chamber.

The one glaring thing that has stood out though is the lack of public participation. But then no wonder. Who knows that we're even meeting? There's some inconsequential bit of paper posted on a message board inside the town hall where nobody goes, or hardly anybody goes. We should have an "A" board outside on the pavement telling people that there's a meeting tonight. Oh but hang on, we may be contravening some bye law about blocking pavements, can't do that. Hey but we do have a web site now though, and it's all there, I suppose. I was responsible for that, one thing that I did manage to achieve, although how many people use it I don't know.
No, we're in a way a secret society, beavering away on your behalf, making very little difference to your lives. God knows, we try to be a force for good but often our suggestions are ignored by the big boys, and girls at SLDC who seem to steam roller through any policies that we disagree with. It all makes for a very frustrated bunch of councillors who over time just loose the will to fight with any real vigour.

 Most have been there too long and seem to understand the protocols too well, that all they can ever suggest is that we write a strong letter, which ends up at the bottom of some in-tray at SLDC, or Cumbria county councils offices.
I really believe that we should have limited terms of office for town councillors. I think two should be enough, that's eight years. Would you believe some have been there for thirty years! That's far too long, your bound to get tired, we need vim and vigour, we need new blood coming in all the time, people with a passion who can make things happen, have new ideas, turn things around, be engaged.
Yes eight years is enough, which is why this May I don't want to be elected, , I've done my bit and now it's time to say goodbye.