Today is International Blasphemy Day!

Cross-post by Maryam Namazie

A quarter of the world’s countries and territories (26%) have anti-blasphemy laws or policies, and more than one-in-ten (13%) countries have laws or policies penalizing apostasy.
According to Pew research, laws restricting apostasy and blasphemy are most common in the Middle East and North Africa, where 18 of the region’s 20 countries (90%) criminalize blasphemy and 14 (70%) criminalize apostasy. While apostasy laws exist in two other regions of the world – Asia-Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa – blasphemy laws can be found in all regions, including Europe (in 16% of countries) and the Americas (29%).

The 14 countries that have the death penalty for blasphemy are all countries with Islamic law: Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

66 countries have blasphemy laws: Afghanistan, Algeria, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Comoros, Cyprus, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Grenada, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Mauritius, Montenegro, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, St Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Sudan, Suriname, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe. (It used to be 71 but Canada, Denmark, Greece, Malta and New Zealand have dropped blasphemy codes from their books recently.)

On 30 September, International Blasphemy Day, let's stand with blasphemers across the globe.
Blasphemy is not a crime; it is an integral part of freedom of expression and conscience. 

#EndBlasphemyLaws #BlasphemyNotACrime #BlasphemyDay

#IAmBasukiTjahajaPurnama #Indonesia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basuki_Tjahaja_Purnama…

#IAmSohailArabi #Iran
https://www.en-hrana.org/tag/sohail-arabi

#IAmSinaDehghan #Iran https://www.independent.co.uk/…/iranian-man-sina-dehgham-de…

#IAmPeymanMirzazadeh #Iran
https://iran-hrm.com/…/kurdish-singer-hunger-strikes-after…/

#iAmSaharEliasi #IAmMohammadNouri #Iran
https://www.iranhumanrights.org/…/young-man-facing-death-f…/

#IAmSherifGaber #Egypt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNXMBH5mIX0

#IAmShahabMurtadhaGhafouri #Kuwait
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/…/instagram-influencer-arrested-o…

#IAmMohamedRusthumMujuthab #Maldives https://www.ex-muslim.org.uk/…/demanding-the-unconditional…/

#IAmAbdulInyass #Nigeria
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35241608

#IAmTaimoorReza #Pakistan
https://www.theguardian.com/…/pakistan-man-sentenced-to-dea…

#IAmAyazNizami #Pakistan
https://www.secularism.org.uk/…/pakistani-twitter-users-cal…

#IAmShafqatEmmanuel #IAmShaguftaKausar #Pakistan https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Shafqat_Emmanuel_and_Shagufta_Ka…

#IAmAhmedAl_Shamri #SaudiArabia
https://www.independent.co.uk/…/saudi-arabia-man-sentenced-…

#iAmRaifBadawi #SaudiArabia
https://www.indexoncensorship.org/…/raif-badawi-saudi-arab…/

#IAmMahmoudJamaAhmed_Hamdi #Somalia https://samaynta.com/…/university-professor-in-somalia-se…/…

#IAmJabeurMejri #Tunisia
https://pen-international.org/…/tunisia-blogger-denied-pard…

Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB)
Ex-Muslims of North America
Ex-Muslims of Norway
Council of Ex-Muslims of Sri Lanka
Faithless Hijabi
Freethought Lebanon
Säkulare Flüchtlingshilfe - Österreich
Mouvement Alternatif pour les Libertés Individuelles - Maroc

Space 1999 Rebooted!

One of the much loved Gerry Anderson series, Space 1999 has at last returned albeit in a new format with new actors. In association with Big Finish, the Gerry Anderson company has launched what will hopefully be the first of an on-going audio series on CD and download. The special edition has already sold out and the Gerry Anderson store had none in stock when I finally got around to ordering it but more have now arrived!

Like many my age Space 199 was Saturday afternoon viewing back in the day as were all of Gerry Anderson's adventures like Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlett and Stingray. Adventure for all the family. Times move on and this update reboots everything we once thought we knew and although familiar has a number of changes both in the origin and forthcoming stories some of which will be remakes and others totally new adventures.

So how does this compare? It's different that's all. The classic show will always remain a highpoint of Gerry Anderson's output and a fond memory for it's fans and can be seen in re-runs on The Forces Channel (Freeview Channel 96). With familiar theme tunes and sound effects it's only getting used to the new cast that is required.

And a good cast it is indeed Mark Bonnar plays Commander John Keoneg, Maria Teresa Creasy plays Dr Helena Russel and  Clive Haywood plays Prof Victor Bergman amongst others.

This first double CD is the "origin" story rewritten as astraunauts die in mysterious circumstances and of course there is one almighty explosion that sends the Moon out of Earths orbit and into science fiction history. The adventure has begun and I look forward to hearing more.

Space 1999 can be obtained via: shop.gerryanderson.co.uk

New Music from Baby Metal & Steel Panther

Taken from their forthcoming album Metal Galaxy, Baby Metal perform Shanti Shanti Shanti a Japanese-Indian fusion of metal. Shanti means peace in Hindi. Performing on this track is new Baby Metal member Riho Sayashi who is from the band Morning Musume. I'm not sure that she will be a permanent member of the band but certainly makes a good replacement for the sadly departed Yui Metal.

Metal Galaxy is released on CD & Vinyl October 11th




Official website: www.babymetal.com

The latest album from the American heavy metal band Steel Panther,was released yesterday and is their usual over the top lyrics and antics which are not for the faint-hearted or the politically correct. In fct most of their material isn't probably acceptable in decent company but hey-ho there we go.

The following video and song will cause offence as does all their other material so don't say you weren't warned. otherwise enjoy and have a laugh as if you were a schoolboy back in the seventies....



Official website: www.steelpantherrocks.com

Three thrillers for autumn evenings

As the evenings close in and the curtains draw relaxing in the armchair with a good book is a splendid way to spend time immersed in mystery, mayhem and murder. Not literally of course more in a literary way...

Kicking off my recent choices is The Chestnut Man  by Soern Sviestrup (Penguin £12.99 Hardback)  set in Denmark and concerning a crime long thought resolved and the perpetrator imprisoned. A story ranging from a dim past to the modern day full of red herrings and literally little men made of chestnuts found at the scene.

Slow to start but builds as Naia Thulin and a disgraced former Europol officer Mark Hess look at a muder with connections to the missing daughter of a senior politician Rosa Hartung. Then there is another. A race is on. If you are a fan of Scandinavian thrillers this will appeal. Readerss may be familiar with the authors work as scriptwriter for The Killing.

Purchased on a whim after a glance at the book charts in The Sunday Times Peter James latest novel Absolute Proof (Pan Paperback £8.99) proved an entertaining page turner as Journalist Ross Hunter meets with a seemingly wacky professor who says he has evidence of God's actual existence. Crazy huh? So how come this man knows about the strange experience he had when his twin brother passed. More to the point why are all these people trying to stop him.

A multi-national pharmaceutical company, a money grabbing telly-preacher (only $25 a prayer), the Vatican and MI5 have all taken an interest. A globe trotting epic in the vein of The Da Vinci Code. I liked this one and have already picked up his latest hardback, The Secret of Cold Hill which will be reviewed in due course.

Finally I've just completed reading The Wych Elm by Tana French (Penguin £8.99) which was recommended to me by a member of Waterstones staff. I have differences with what she thought of the novel and it's characters. I thought the main protagonist was just an ordinary "Joe" or "Paddy" (since this was set in Dublin) whilst she thought he was unlikable from the beginning. Either way it takes more than a while for the main story to become apparent and even then the twists and turns are unexpected all the way through to the end.

Of the the three this is probably the best in terms of mystery, in-depth characterisation and exploration of the human psyche.

Doctor Who: Tartarus

Continuing the adventures of the fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) with Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) this audio drama takes us to Cicero's villa. The Doctor has always wanted to meet the great orator of Rome and posing as a Roman travelling with his two sisters gate crashes the party.

This being a Doctor Who adventure means that all is not well and as strange green lights appear in the sky just in time to stop Tegan from being thrown out of the party there is also an earthquake. The Doctor, his companions, Cicero, Septus and Mark take shelter in wine cellar.

Next thing they are no longer in Kansas as they say and wake to a world of the gods with giants, baby dragons and adventure. Is this the afterlife. Who or what is Tartarus and what does she want.

Also starring Tracy-Ann Oberman as Tartarus.

Overall a middling adventure but entertaining edition of the regular series produced by Big Finish that help fill those months of no Doctor on TV.  Plenty more where that came from.

Check them out: www.bigfinish.com

Jackie Walkers witch hunt continues

Guest Post by Mel Gharial

Last Thursday, I decided to return to my South London roots and attend the Labour Against the Witch Hunt meeting at the 336 building in Brixton, hosted by the Caribbean Labour solidarity campaign.

There were only a few people there when I arrived, including Jackie Walker, but thankfully I wasn't recognised and found a seat. However, I must have looked a bit suspicious as a man immediately came over and asked what I was doing there. As I didn't want him asking me about my links to the labour party, I quickly responded by saying that i was meant to be coming with my friend who was ill, but had ended up coming on my own and didn't know too much about it.

The meeting kicked off by talking about the awful Zionists and how they suppress everything and how Mr Corbyn is a life long campaigner for racism and antisemitism.( I was wondering if it was comedy hour, but no!)

They then showed a film which implied that Zionists have now joined forces with the 'far right' and went on to show TR and several other people who they define as 'far right'. I won't go into the film as it can be viewed online, but unsurprisingly it was totally one-sided and showed all my fellow Zionists in a negative light. ( My main concern at this stage was that MY face was next to be shown in the film😟)

Once the film finished, Ms Walker then went on to hold a short question and answers session where she went in to say that the most abused politicians are not Jews, but Dionne Abbot! (Nothing to do with her being a crap MP!🤔)

There was only one person there who stood up for the Jewish community and she brought up the fact of how Jewish people in the labour party are treated, only to be told that she had said enough and an aggressive member of the audience told her to 'shut up'

In fact, every time antisemitism was mentioned, Ms Walker would turn it round to how much abuse she has suffered and still suffers on a daily basis. The man who was chairing the meeting also kept repeating that antisemitism is always being spoken about, but not other forms of racism which are always overlooked and there should also not be a hierarchy when recognising holocaust memorial day.

A member of the JVL(Jewish voice for Labour) then went on to say that Luciana Berger is a liar and how much support he gets from orthodox jews. He also went on to tell the audience that David Collier is being helped by Mossad and that we need to ask questions, this was followed by nods of agreement. Ms Walker then went on to say that all orthodox Jews are anti-Zionist, Corbyn supporters and why are they being silenced.

Again, Ms Walker turned the conversation round to to the lack of people of colour in the labour party because they feel abused and the fact that we are always concentrating on antisemitism.

Finally, I asked why she thinks that antisemitism has risen in the last few years and again she replied that it is just as bad for other minorities.

There were loads of questions I would have liked to have asked but there was no time left.

Someone then passed a hat around to help pay for Ms Walker's expenses. I didn't have any change, but funnily enough I had a shekel in my bag from my last trip to Israel and I couldn't resist! 🤣

Labour's Lost

Normally given the opportunity to be at home I would be furiously blogging about the Labour Party fringe with bewildered amusement and dipping in and out of proceedings on the television. Not any more. The fringe have become mainstream, the debates hopeless, the racism apparent as the chair of the Jewish Labour Movement gets jeered and hissed when he mentions a certain type of racism.

The police have removed an anti-Semitic poster from outside the conference hall. Why delegates didn't tear it down shows how degenerated the party has become following the influx of the politically deranged and unwashed that were usually found on demonstrations shouting slogans and never taking any responsibility for their demands or actions.

Because they never had to. Just like Jeremy Corbyn these people are a movement of slogans, simple black & white outlooks on life and intolerant to anyone that does not agree, Even amongst themselves.

However not is well with the party (not that there's anything new with that) as the comrades disown their own student organisation, try to depose their deputy leader which the old fool Compo denies having any pre-knowledge of which either way is disturbing for someone supposedly in charge of the whole shebang.

At the same time Compo likes to sit on the fence of the biggest political crisis since Suez pretending he's neutral when everyone knows that he has been against the EU since as far back as anyone can remember. Honesty has actually never been his strong-point.

Neither has his dismissal of the concerns of the Jewish community after all as his mates say on the left Jews are not an oppressed minority. They are white and privileged. Rich businessmen and there's Zionists everywhere controlling the banks and the media. A world wide conspiracy according to many of his acolytes.

Meanwhile as the comrades turn to social engineering us all in their fairy tale ideology the ordinary working men and women of this country have been forgotten. The individual does not count, only the class.

Stalinism is afoot.

A View from a Liberal Democrat

Guest Post by Nick O'Shea

If you ever thought the Lib Dems were a one-policy party, then the media coverage of this week’s conference won’t have changed your mind. However, they did discuss a myriad of other important issues ranging from giving support for young carers (needs improving) to the climate change emergency (should be taken seriously) and a whole lot more.

But the headline of course was that the Lib Dem’s new leader Jo Swinson committed her party to rolling back Brexit with the promise to revoke article 50 – no if’s or but’s – if they get a majority at the next General Election. Of course, that won’t happen, but is makes it crystal clear that the Lib Dems intend to lead the anti-Brexit campaign, in complete contrast to Labour under Corbyn who showed his usual leadership style by saying that he’d do whatever the people decided about Brexit in a new referendum. A council chief executive once told me that the job of the leader (of the council in that case, me at the time) is to decide what the right policy is and then work flat out to convince everyone to support it. Not to limply say, “well, I’ll do anything you want me to….” Comrade Jeremy must have missed that lesson.

Although that might still be preferable to the Tories and their inept buffoon of a leader who is still trying to drive the bus over the cliff. He was completed up-staged by the PM of Luxemburg (who did the taking back of control bit while BJ slunk off out the back door) as it was revealed that Johnson has no idea what a hard border across Ireland would do or would even look like.

Also mentioned not a few times this week was just how the Leave campaign’s promise to take back control and have our parliament sovereign again squares with proroguing that same parliament when Johnson’s leaving-backing government looses its majority so there can be no parliamentary checks over a government patently out of control.

Naturally, the Lib Dems took pride in showing off their new MPs, Jane Dodd elected as a Lib Dem in Brecon and Radnor, together with former Tories like Sam Gyimah and Philip Lee and ex-Labour like Chuka Umunna and Luciana Berger. The party has gone a long way from the sandals and beards of the 70s and has finally escaped the pink-Tories image of the junior coalition partner from nearly a decade ago. Bright new leader. Publicly popular policy on Brexit. Appealing to the non-extremist and anti-populist ‘silent majority’: people who have been left behind by both the Tories and Labour as they each charge head-long towards their own version of intolerant populism. Interesting times.

Nick O’Shea was a Lib Dem councillor in Mole Valley

PCS union: A three way General Secretary election?

The political fallout from the internal squabbles within the far-left controlled union continue as the election for their General Secretary. The Socialist Party who have been at the centre of the union at the same time as Mark Serwotka were forced to withdraw their candidate Marion Lloyd from the Left Unity nomination race as she simply just couldn't get enough support.

So now maid Marion is running for General Secretary openly as a Socialist Party candidate and is seeking nomination. Writing in their turgid newspaper The Socialist she writes:

I am a Socialist Party member and have served our union the whole of my working life. Along with others, I played an important role in paving the way for PCS to become a fighting union, first under New Labour and then against the Tories, and their vicious austerity. However, I believe that this is now under threat...........

Oddly Marion and her party are somewhat schizophrenic in the political approach to the Labour party and she muses:

I will campaign for the election of a Jeremy Corbyn-led government with anti-austerity policies in a general election.

However, I have opposed attempts within the PCS leadership to move us towards affiliation to Labour in the current situation.

Finally she appeals for support which must be sadly lacking outside the big tent of Left Unity:

Candidates need fifteen nominations to get on the ballot paper by the closing date of 14 October. Please give me the opportunity to put my programme to the PCS membership.

It'll be touch and go whether she gets on the ballot, only time will tell.

Most of the former Socialist Party Grandees have defected to Socialist Voice or taken leave from the union for other reasons. However their whinging about the plight of the now tiny rump of Taffites has become laughable. They complain:

As General Secretary for over 20 years Mark Serwotka has increasingly centralised power and decision making, with a consequential weakening of elected lay rep control of the union. We are opposed to this. Additionally, there are a number of other issues which we disagree with him over, including pay strategy, organising, gender recognition rights and political strategy.

Except for the issue of gender recognition rights everything they complain about Serwotka doing is something they were complicit in as the far-left stitched up affairs in the union so that opposition to the dear leader became almost as blasphemous ans the left treat Corbyn today.

The Socialist Party feted Serwotka for their ill fated Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition project which fell apart when old Compo took over the Labour Party. The SP arrogantly attempted to form an alliance with Labour which was unsurprisingly ignored

The fact is Mark Serwotka who promised to live on a workers wage actually never did and has become one very rich individual. A champagne socialist indeed, but then old Corbyn has quite a few pennies and a massive pension pot. Seems being a leader on the left is quite lucrative for many. Arthur Scargill anyone?

If any union needed change and a kick up the arse so to speak it would be PCS though Lenin McCluskey ought to get shoved out to pasture as well.

Meanwhile a third and quite credible candidate has emerged from the Independent Left, Bev Laidlaw a pleasant PCS activist who despite having politics somewhat too far left is certainly a better choice than either Sir Mark Vodka or Maid Marion. Her political ally John Maloney is already in post as Assistant General Secretary.

At least she sees the real problem with the union:

PCS’s full-time apparatus is far removed from its lay membership. This is not a fault of individuals amongst the union staff but a structural issue due to the way that the union is set up. As a candidate who believes that ours should be a lay-led union, with members firmly in the driving seat, I intend to address............

One hopes she does though there will be opposition from all quarters and some of the Indepepdnet left's "fundamentalists" need to be firmly controlled.

The question remains how many or rather how few PCS members take any notice of any of this as the union continues it's current decline.

Wither the TUC

Image By Source, Fair use

Most people failed to notice that the Trade Union Congress held it's annual conference last week. Even fewer probably cared even in the minds of the members of it's constituent unions.  Yet there was a time when the TUC actually meant something. I grew up in the years of Len Murray, the Social Contract and became politically active in the seventies when the unions helped bring down a Labour government and unwittingly laid the foundations for the backlash that led to what became known as "Thatcherism".

Even then the NUM under King Arthur managed to keep the unions marching on until their inevitable defeat after failing to ballot it's members over a strike and dividing their united ranks forever.

Fast forward today and the TUC is a much smaller, much less influential body despite the largest union, UNITE under the leadership of Len McCluskey remains a key player in the eternal machinations of the Labour Party.

The New Statesman decided to look at what the brothers had to say about Brexit and were not impressed:

It starts out well enough, with a perfectly coherent statement about the TUC’s opposition to a no-deal Brexit. But it quickly collapses into a mishmash of incoherent paragraphs, in which a cogent and clear position becomes increasingly hard to make out. It reads as if every trades union involved has agreed to compromise by each writing a different clause of each sentence – and the result is a statement that leaves the reader none the wiser as to what the TUC wants to happen instead of no-deal Brexit.

In other words the divisions with the TUC reflect that in wider society and it should be noted their leaders know a high percentage of their members voted to leave the EU. A fudge is all they could manage despite the bluster spouted at the podium all week.

It's unlikely that most trade union members will ever read the full statement issued by their collective representatives let alone care. For most people the unions have become an insurance policy against bad management and only call on their services when (or if) they get into trouble. Even the most radical of unions, the PCS has spent more time on inane internal power battles over who hold which comrade holds which plum well paid post in the hierarchy.

Meanwhile the comrades have decided that despite everything that's going on in this country and the threats to it's members it's going to up the campaign to boycott the world's sole Jewish state. And the comrades wonder why the Labour Party and  the left are seen as a source of racism against Jews these days.

The comrades do not recognise Jews as an oppressed group. If you read the memes shared by many so-called lefties you'll be left in no doubt as the their "Strasserite" streak. The TUC ceased representing it's members like so many of it's constituent unions in the form of UNITE and PCS. Political posturing and ideological warfare before members needs.

Sad but true. No wonder the TUC is withering away.

Music from Mongolia with The Hu!

The Hu who hail from Mongolia have finally released their first album The Gereg after debuting their music via You Tube and gaining sales from the singles that sold well enough to reach the number one on the Digital Sales Billboard chart.

With nine tracks The Hu present a fresh take on Metal music mixed with folk and the famed throat singing native to Mongolia. It's a terrific album which is well worth grabbing a copy of. Here's a little taste of their style. Note the number of hits this video has had. Love this track.




More info on their website: www.thehuofficial.com

Fifty years of...Black Sabbath and Monty Python!

Two of my all time favourites hit their 50th Anniversaries this year, The band Black Sabbath and the comedy show Monty Python. Both of them were huge influences on my musical and comedy tastes both then and to this day.

First up is Black Sabbath who I discovered through a friends older brothers music collection (when he wasn't around to catch us playing his records. The first album of theirs I picked up was Black Sabbath IV and never looked back. Along with Deep Purple, Hawkwind, Family, Argent and others these were the sounds that I never stopped listening to.

Since I'm reliving my childhood/adolescent years as I enter the second year of my retirement I just can't believe it's been 50 years. Gosh I'm an old git!  I even have a Black Sabbath badge on the jacket I'm wearing at the moment.

Here's a little something from their album Master Of Reality:



Official Website: www.blacksabbath.com

And now for something completely different...as they used to say!

It's Monty Python's Flying Circus, one of the greats of British comedy that we all imitated at school from the Ministry of silly Walks to Mr Gumby, handkerchiefs tied over our heads much to the chagrin of our teachers.

Did we care? Nah!

Free Tibet: Tour for Peace

The Dialogue for Peace tour, led by Tibetan Parliament-in-exile representative Ven Thupten Wangchen, is set to visit 30 countries in Europe with the objective to urge the European Union, MPs and Tibet support groups to support an urgent dialogue between China and Tibet.

The tour will arrive in London on 10 September and our supporters are encouraged to attend:

Tuesday 10 September
Welcome Ceremony
General Gordon Square
Woolwich, SE18 6HD
6:00pm

Wednesday 11 September
Dialogue for Peace Vigil
Chinese Embassy, 31 Portland Place
Marylebone, W1B 1QD
6:00pm

The tour will then visit Scotland on 13-14 September, before coming to a close on 8 November.

Should you wish to show your support, more information about the tour schedule and related events can be found at Dialogue for Peace.

New Moon's In The Sky - Songs from 1970 Reviewed

1970 was a pivotal year in British music as the sounds of the sixties began their transformation into what became known as progressive rock. Some of these bands were to disappear but others were to try to change and adapt. Others made a breakthrough. Some of these bands will be familiar even if these particular songs are not.

I was in my first year at secondary school in 1970 and it was in that year that I purchased my first ever single In My Own Time by Family. My knowledge of music was limited not just by age ut opportunity. We only has Radio One and Radio Luxembourg (in the evenings) the latter giving me a better introduction to the music scene with it's late night shows listened to under the bed-sheets as I should have been asleep at that hour.....

Cherry Records have released an interesting package of progressive sounds from 1970 under the title New Moons In The Sky, a 3 CD compilation of no less than 70 tracks from that year. I am only familiar with a few of these bands like Hawkwind, The Hollies, Tremoloes and Procol Harum to name a few but there are many I have never heard of and deserve an outing.

Sadly one track I wanted to play is not available anywhere on You Tube, Savwinkle & Turnerhopper whose track,  Your Mother Thinks I'm A Hoodlum was very listenable.  However I did want to share this pre-glam rock track by The Sweet. Very different and they were a much under-rated band amongst the prog rock community.




My next choice is also from a familiar band, The Move. This fairly long track simply called What? is an excellent piece of music I'd not heard before.





There are a few "novelty" pieces in this collection. One (The very last on the third CD is quite a serious piece by of all people Bill Oddie called On Ilkla' Moor Baht'At which is well worth a spin. However it was this "Beatles" like song by The Fut which sounds like John Lennon (and Yoko Ono attempted to copyright apparently) You Heard The Word.





Overall this is a nice little package with some interesting music well worth picking up if Prog Rock is your "thing".

New Moon In The Sky is available here: www.cherryred.co.uk

Demonstrate: Free West Papua Sat 7th September

Demonstrate!

Saturday 7th September 14:00 to 16:00

Opposite Indonesian Embassy

30 Great Peter Street, SW1P 2BU London

Further information: www.freewestpapua.org

Exactly 50 years since West Papua was first illegally occupied by Indonesia, now is the time for the world to wake up and stand in solidarity with the West Papua Uprising. As the world supported the people of East Timor during their time of need, so too must the world now stand with the people of West Papua.

Sounds on Sunday: Battle Beast on Tour, New music from Mary's Blood and Unleash The Archers & more!

The Finnish band Battle Beast are due to play four dates in the UK in Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and London. in late November. I've already got my ticket so grab yours while you can.

Battle Beast are: Noora Louhimo – lead vocals, Janne Björkroth – keyboards, Joona Björkroth – lead guitar, Juuso Soinio – rhythm guitar, Eero Sipilä – bass, Pyry Vikki – drums

Official Website: battlebeast.fi

Battle Beast will be supported by Swedish band Cyhra, new to me but formed in 2017 so here's a track from them. Not bad at all!



Cyhra are: Jake E – vocals, Jesper Strömblad – guitars, Euge Valovirta – guitars, Alex Landenburg – drums

Official Website: cyhra.com

Meanwhile from Japan Mary's Blood have a new album out in October from British distributors JPU Records.

Here's a track from Mary's Blood who are: Eye – vocals, Mari – drums, bandleader, Rio – bass guitar, Saki – guitar



Official Website: marysblood.sliptrickrecords.com

Last but by no means the least is some new music from Unleash The Archers who hail from Canada! They have a new EP, Explorers out on October 4th.



Unleash The Archers are:  Vocals: Brittney Slayes, Drums: Scott Buchanan, Guitar: Grant Truesdell, Guitar, Andrew Kingsley

Official Website: www.unleashthearchers.com