I'd Like To Teach The World to Shut The Fuck Up continued By Silver Fox

Start Page Prev Page

Music's a great thing (in the right hands, obviously), but there are, let's face it, better ways for our schools to spend their folding stuff - literacy, perhaps? Encouraging people to express themselves through music is, at bottom, a laudable aim, but it should not be overlooked that there is another, easier method open to people through self-expression; one that doesn't really need expensive equipment - a handy little thing called language.

There is little point in some leprous sprog being able to whizz through Rachmaninov's 113th Symphony (Ode to the Pressure Cooker) in two minutes flat if, when they come to accept the rapturous applause of the audience, all it can do is scratch its chin and say things like well, basically, it's music at the end of the day, innit? It's also arguable that the constant rise in the number of manufactured pop stars only strengthens the case for better education. When some disgraced Pop Idol faces a baying pack of showbiz reporters who want to know exactly where the pineapple was inserted, they're going to need communication skills far more than they ever needed to hold down a barred F chord.

Or, maybe I'm just worried about the competition from people who are younger and better looking than CrackTown. Hard to say, www.catsandkittens, hard to say.

Whatever Happened To .. Kickstart, and, to a far lesser extent, Junior Kickstart..? Music and Lies (The hip spot where Fact's arse is fondled by Rumour during the slow songs)

..while visiting the New Adelphi (aah, the Adelphi..you go for the music, but you stay for the toilets) last musician's night, I saw a cracking singer/songwriter/guitarist who introduced himself simply as ADE. I don't know if he's in a band or anything (I don't really like talking to musicians, for obvious reasons), but I thought he had some of the most impressive lyrics I've heard in ages. Go see if he turns up again, why not?

..I was enjoying a congenial spot of solvent abuse with The Blueskins the other day, when the bassist said to me (in a rather camp, Scottish accent I certainly didn't expect): y'know, Foxy, sometimes I feel as though the entire band ought to just impersonate coypu full-time; why should it just be a weekend thing? Food for thought there, I think you'll agree..why not go to the Ringside next week? I hear that the management intend to coat the stage liberally with butterscotch and, as my source put it so eloquently, let nature take its course..more soon..

Foxy's Final Fought

Wasn't it touching to see the Queen inaugurating the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park this week? How sublime to see HM the Q, the epitome of grace and diplomacy burying the hatchet with the late Queen of Hearts' family? To see such peace and accord on such a magnificent occasion really made one understand the true decency of our betters; fair gave me a lump in the throat, it did.

Princess Diana was an extraordinary woman. She could take the most mundane and commonplace activities (such as marrying into Royalty, getting her picture in the papers constantly, mouthing platitudes about charities in a sincere manner, going mental, fucking anything within sniffing distance of Debrett's, and dying in a mysterious car-crash) and make them seem so special.

Sadly, the British disease of pettiness and sour grapes is always with us. Only yesterday, it was suggested that £3.6m is a hell of a lot of bread to lay out to remember her - especially when there are two scrounging, goofily-photogenic blondes with an aptitude for token humanitarian gestures already carrying on her legacy and costing us all a fucking fortune. And, if time permits, I'll be suggesting it again tomorrow. People don't always listen, you see.

Columns - Ronald Reagan - An Apology By Silver Fox
	Let's not beat around the bush, www.catsandkittens; last week, some harsh words were said. I - in an unprecedented and regrettable lapse - allowed my integrity and even-handed, dispassionate analysis of Things As They Are to become compromised by personal opinion: there, I've said it. I admit fully that Read more...

Columns - Tales from the Lonely Tavern - Edition One By King Rat - Professional Yorkshireman
	Recently in the hallowed pages of thisisull.com a new columnist has sprung up, filling our heads with home-grown opinions. This master of the pen is none other than the Silverfox, a man I have many a doings with in CrackTown. Now much as I respect the genius and Read more...

Columns - Steve Regan: the King of Hull
	There is panic throughout most of the state and voluntary-aided schools in Hull because so many pupils are simply out of control. A new report and survey chronicles the terrible situation in classrooms across this city. I'm sorry to say it is a picture which does not hold out a great deal of Read more...

Articles - Death On Camera By Nicholas Boldock
	I have just watched Death On Camera, the BBC documentary about Christopher Alder, who died in police custody in Hull in 1998. If you missed the programme and don't already know the case, here are the facts: Christopher Alder was in Waterfront Nightclub on the night of April 1st, 1998. There was an altercation inside the club Read more...

Articles - Made In Hull - Part One - Arundel Street Days By Maurice Fairfield

	My story begins in Arundel Street and wanders away to the shallow end of Holderness Road next door to the tram sheds and opposite the old Astoria Cinema, which was at that time the New Astoria Cinema. Then to Hedon for a time, then back to Arundel a couple of years before the outbreak of the war. Read more...

Articles - Digging Up The Past By Cilla

	Months ago we published an series of articles written by a man who was witness to the events in The Cod Wars. His name is John Boldock and his story is an honest account of what life was like for him as a young man in what were dangerous and terrifying times. After the story had been published on the site Read more...

Coffee Shops Reviews - Wired Cyber Café and Network Gaming Centre, Cottingham Road, Hull By Starpaw.

	The world is turning digital, it's true. WAP mobile phones, digital televisions and palmtops, the works. Computers are here to stay and the net is playing an even larger role in our everyday lives. Once the domain of geeks and computer fanatic's, cyber space Read more...

Coffee Shops Reviews - Virtually Perfect Cybercentre Café, 17 Paragon Street Hull

	From the ashes of the defunct Sydney Scarborough building rises Hull's one and only cyber cafe. It's decked out with huge dark blue comfy sofas, massive ultraviolet waveform artwork adorning the walls and Avril Lavinge's Sk8er Boi playing out through the sound system. Liberal amounts Read more...