UKHamlet's Blog

“She has the sweetest darkest side. And when it comes into her eyes I know iron and steel couldn’t hold me.” From An Audience With The Pope from the album The Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow.

Elbow have largely flown under my radar, acquiring an accretion of awards and celebrity plaudits as they flew by. Both the Brits and Mercury music prizes have landed on their collective mantlepiece and despite looking like a young, straight Stephen Fry, Guy Garvey has delivered on his promise to add to their predominantly female fan-base. With the release of “The Seldom Seen Kid” and their introduction to my car stereo, they have a male fan too.

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They’ve been around for a while – forming in 1990 as Mr Soft – as wrong a title as you could possibly contrive without assistance. Rock bands are never soft, particularly “alternative” rock bands and that’s where Elbow have pitched their tent. To their credit, they realised the error of their ways and thanks to Denis Potter and the character Philip Marlow, from his mini-series “The Singing Detective”, they switched to Elbow, which according to Marlow is; “the most sensuous word in the English language”, not for its definition, but instead for the way you feel when you say it. I’ve been reliably informed, the inside of the elbow, the crook, is very sensuous anyway. I’ll get back to you on that one once the research has been done.

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The Seldom Seen Kid, is the latest of four albums from the band, released in March 2008. Preceding it were: Asleep in the back, Cast of thousands, and Leaders of the free world. The progression in skill, both in terms of song writing strengths, and production are clearly illustrated if you listen to each of the albums in succession. They are now at the peak of their powers and it really does show, because there is scarcely a track on the album that isn’t of the highest of standards. Continue reading

“Blimey, are you listening to Obama’s missus?” Lol missed the usual pleasantries.
“Trying to, but someone’s on the phone spoiling it.” I was and he was.
“Soz mate, I’ll shut the fuck up, shall I?” He took my silence as the affirmative it was meant to be. For the next three minutes we both sat there, either end of a phone line, not saying anything, but meaning everything. When she’d finished my lip was trembling, and I couldn’t say anything anyway. The sharp intake of breath with a slight terminal shudder coming from the Westminster end of our line told me I was not alone in this respect.

Few politicians, if any, can inspire me to an emotional response with their words. I get the occasional flicker of anger, but even then it subsides quickly, replaced by a weariness borne out of several decades of despair. Even fewer politician’s wives can evoke any kind of response at all. Michelle Obama is different though.

Her powerful speech to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Islington took my breath away. The sheer passion, and emotion evident in her voice, the message her words conveyed and the response she had from her largely teenage audience, all spoke of a woman who not only believed what she was saying, but knew how to say it and not just to the hundred or so youngsters in her immediate audience. Her voice broke too as she referred to the girls as “diamonds”, my heart broke at the same time because I knew, I knew exactly what she was saying. Better still, anyone watching now knows about those hidden diamonds, just waiting to be discovered and polished.

The real Michelle according to Google

“If you want to know the reason why I am standing here, it’s because of education,” she told them.
“I never cut class. I loved getting As, I liked being smart. I liked being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world. You, too, with these values, can control your own destiny. You, too, can pave the way.”
“For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady. I was not raised with wealth or resources or any social standing to speak of. I was raised on the South Side of Chicago — that’s the real part of Chicago.” Continue reading