Sinister: B&S go political

[Stuart Gardiner]

I know we're meant to keep political discussions off the list, but I think
an exception can be made for this one (as long as we don't spend the next
month debating it!).

Today's NME contains a long article about how Tony Blair's Labour
government has betrayed and cheated young people (and music fans in
particular). As part of this, there are a series of mini-interviews with
musicians, and one of them is with our very own Stuart David...



Q Were you ever on the dole? If so, for how long?

"I was on the dole for seven years, from when I was 16 until I was 24 -
with one year off in the middle somewhere to do a music course at college.
I started signing on while I was still at school. Our teacher in Modern
Studies got this older kid in the class to stand up and give a talk one
day, explaining to the rest of us how to do it - and I thought, 'That'll
do for me'."

Q Would you have survived without it?

"I imagine I would have _survived_ without it, yes. But I probably
wouldn't have had the time to learn how to write and how to play."

Q What would you be doing now, if you'd been forced to get a job when you
left school? (As Labour are currently planning)

"If I'd been forced to get a job when I left school I'd probably still be
doing it now."

Q Do you see any difference between the current Labour government and the
previous Tory one?

"I always wanted there to be a Labour government, and I thought in most
ways that it would be better for the country in general. But I also knew
that it would mean the end of the dole culture as we've known it. Labour
have always been about getting people working - and they've always been a
worker's party, that's where the name came from."

Q What should Labour be doing to help young people?

"It was an accident that a minority of the people signing on during the
years of the Conservative government managed to use it in their own favour
- as a sort of unofficial artist's grant. But I think Labour could learn
from that, and perhaps introduce an official grant for developing artists
and musicians.
"Beyond the arts, they should definitely reintroduce full student grants
and housing benefit for students, and just generally make it easier for
kids to survive financially while they're working out what it is they want
to do."

Q Are you surprised they have no new policies/ideas about drugs?

"No."

Q Should pop stars be going to Number 10? (As Noel Gallagher did)

"Of course pop stars shouldn't be gong to Nunmber 10. But most people are
shameless about selling records."

Q Can music change anything?

"Of course music can change certain things. It changes how kids perceive
the world when it first affects them. And when they become the generation
in power a little bit of that should still be with them."



He's actually a hell of a lot kinder to Labour than some of the
interviewees; buy the NME if you want more (it's well worth a read, it's
the most sense I've read in the NME for ages).

Keith Woodfield / Hoppy Miles (I think I prefer the second one...)

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