What the Hell. It's what we were born to do.

I hope I don't need to tell you about the three women who were today sentenced to two years in prison for singing a song.  It is true that it was controversial in its lyric and that they chose a rather dangerously high profile location to do it, but even so.

What they did may well have been wrong, illegal indeed under the law that prevails there, and so some punishment due. On the other hand, ask yourself this. Is the outrage, let alone the sentence of two years in prison, a reflection of a system that is not really at peace with its own identity; uncomfortable politically, religiously and culturally?
Maybe it is not for me to comment but here, because you had the nerve to do it, is my slightly irreverent (because that was the whole problem here) take on it:
  
Poor choice of venue maybe, Pussy Riot.  Had you chosen Frome's Cheese & Grain instead we would have bought you drinks and looked after you rather than arranging for your arrest.
Look at it this way:  Did we arrest and then imprison 'The Sex Pistols', back in 1977, for their seditious version of 'God Save The Queen', our National Anthem, because it was arguably in rather poor taste? No.
They had their day as anti-heroes and punk remains a vital part of the curious thing that is British culture. Her Majesty The Queen, very respectfully, waited a further thirty-five years before taking her revenge by appearing with James Bond.

Icons lost.

It is with much sadness that I heard that a second icon of pop music has passed away in as many months. Today it was Malcolm McClaren, most famous for managing 'The Sex Pistols' in their ascendency to ultimate disaster.

Last month it was Charlie Gillett, best known for his championing of world music on the wider stage and using his BBC radio profile to take it to a whole new audience. The strange thing is that, by happenstance quite different operators, they both championed diversity and 'world music'. McClaren was championing hip-hop before we knew what it was while, during the aftershocks of the punk earthquake, Gillett was championing and then managing Dire Straits.

It seems strange now, thirty-something years later, to imagine just how profoundly music has changed. It has never been the same again and Pete Doherty is still alive unless you know otherwise: neither is a bad thing.