Greek authorities have reacted with an iron fist. Another anarchist Lambros Foundas, lies dead after police fired upon a group in the suburb of Dafni, south Athens. Thousands of police tear gas and attack crowds of protesters. Police snatch squads roam the streets making violent arrests.

Maybe in contrast to this an interesting discussion point is the fact some police joined the strike, weakening the states power to some small extent.

But what does this all mean for the long term anti-authoritarian struggle within the country and for the international community? The backdrop of December 2008s riots,sparked by the police shooting of 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos give these fresh events a more revolutionary appearance. What could be framed as simply the acts of reformist trade unions now appears as serious social upheaval. In 2008 radicals, students and immigrants set a new precedent for social rupture in Europe, however there was a clear absence of the less marginal working classes. This time around it is already clear this is not the case. The insurrection has begun to leave the old left behind, taking on a more organic shape all of its own forged by the people taking part in it.

Last Hours attempts to examine the context and actions that shape these new days in the hope that we can all apply new theory and action to our own situations, in our own communities.

This list will grow in the coming days. Please check back for fresh content.

Contents list

Taking over the streets of Athens – Photos by Filkaler, Thursday 11th March 2010

Events map of the Athens protest – Thursday 11th March 2010

Photo report from Olympic airline protests in Athens – Wednesday 10th March 2010

The Greek uprising is truly going European! – Column by Occupied London, Wednesday 10th March 2010

Older content

Everyone to the Streets – Book review

Revolt Chic (if you can’t beat it, recuperate it!)

The fake jump of the diver: Greece, eleven months on
A comic on Greece and beyond
Scotland Yard aid quelling of dissent in Greece
Greece in flames and a London blockade

External content

After the Greek Riots – http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/
How to Organize an Insurrection – http://www.crimethinc.com/blog/2008/12/25/how-to-organize-an-insurrection
Long battles erupt in Athens protest march - http://libcom.org/news/long-battles-erupt-athens-protest-march-05032010
Everyone to the Streets PDF download – http://alphabetthreat.co.uk/tothestreets

All photos by Fil Kaler – www.filkaler.com/

Men from the communist party

The banner reads “Shut downs – sackings – privatisations; we respond with occupations”, and signed by ‘Worker’s Solidarity’

A woman shouts at the cops after they baton charged  her

A man shields his mouth from tear gas

A police snatch squad make an arrest at the Propylea of the Athens University

A protester near Stournari Street surrounded by tear gas

A car burnt out by anarchists. The ‘before’ photo can be seen here

Police on the side streets waiting for the demonstration. The graffiti reads: “freedom for Alfredo Bonnano”, an Italian insurrectionary anarchist, born in 1937, arrested in Greece in October, 2009, accused of carrying out a bank robbery.

Police gas and stun munitions

An orthodox priest surveys a burnt-out barricade

Biggest general strike yet paralyses Greece

Tens of thousands of trade unionists and anti-capitalists demonstrated, bringing the centre of Athens to a standstill. The protest was perhaps twice the size of the one during the general strike of 24 February. Many locals compared it to the mass action in 2001 which defeated a government attempt to cut pensions.

Protesters chanted “Make the bosses pay” and “Where has all the money gone?”

Union leaders hailed today’s general strike as a complete success. Public services ground to a halt in all major cities from Alexandroupoli in the north to Sitia in the south. Public and private sector workers both joined the action.

“The prime minister has just returned from a tour of world leaders – including Nicolas Sarkozy in France, Angela Merkal in Germany and Barack Obama”

“They all congratulated him for his courageous neoliberal reforms which has seen outrageous attacks on peoples pensions, wages and job security. But now he has to face the anger of the Greek people and these strikes are just the beginning.”

Greek workers are stepping up their resistance to austerity measures being enforced by the European Union.

Riot police attempted to split the demonstration, but were met by fierce resistance. Skirmishes continued until the end when they were seen off from the area surrounding Athens Polytechnic.

The situation in Greece

This is part of the Situation in Greece series, with other updates, photos and maps of the general strike. More details at – www.lasthours.org.uk/blogs/the-situation-in-greece/

So the weather’s getting hotter and today I sowed my vegetable seeds so I’m very excited! Now I just need to get motivated to dig up the garden and pull out all the crappy weeds. I’ve never grown my own veg from seed so I’ll keep you updated. If you know of any animal friendly ways of keeping slugs and snails off them please let me know!

I’m pretty sure it’s nearly Easter so I thought I’d get in early and make something Easter themed! You can use this recipe to make one mega fat cake or about 21 muffins!

What you need:

·         3 cups of self raising flour
·         ½ cup of cocoa powder or drinking chocolate
·         1 ½ cups of caster sugar
·         A large pinch of salt
·         ¾ cup vegetable oil (NOT olive)
·         1 ¼ cups of soured soya milk (bung in 1 tsp malt vinegar)
·         ¼ cup soya milk
·         1 tsp vanilla essence
·         1 handful of mini shredded wheat
·         100g chocolate chips
·         1 handful of vegan mini eggs, skittles or jelly beans (keep an eye out for evil shellac or beeswax!)
·         A few tacky fluffy chicks from Poundland

What you do:
1.       Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

2.       Put the flour, sugar and salt into a big bowl.

3.       Pour over the soured soy milk, oil and vanilla essence and stir.

4.       Pour half the mixture into another big bowl.

5.       Add the cocoa powder and soya milk to one and mix.

6.       Spoon the mixtures one at a time into a big, greased cake tin or into little cake cases.

7.       Give them a tiny stir with a spoon or kebab stick.

8.       Bung them in the oven for about 20 mins if they’re little muffins or 40 mins if it’s a mega cake.

9.       Leave the cakes to cool a bit then take them out of the pans and cases if they’re silicon (like mine)

10.   For Easter toppings, melt the chocolate chips by popping them in a bowl in the microwave for 10 secs. Stir then repeat until all melted.

11.   Crush up the shredded wheat and stir them in.

12.   Slice the top of each muffin and quickly wedge a mass of ‘nest’ on top.

13.   At the speed of light, pop on the decorations before the chocolate sets!

14.   Scoff.

All photos by Fil Kaler

For 7 days sacked Olympic airlines worker have occupied the ministry of finance offices by blocking Panepistimiou Avenue, part of the main protesting route. Tonight they blocked the street in protest at government austerity cuts which lead to them losing there jobs when olympic airlines was privatized. On Wednesday Athens attorney General (called Sakelakos) ordered the police to open up Panepistimiou Avenue, even if this would take arresting everyone present at the protest.

More reports will be coming during the day.

The situation in Greece

This is part of the Situation in Greece series, with other updates, photos and maps of the general strike. More details at – www.lasthours.org.uk/blogs/the-situation-in-greece/

It is early in the morning of Tuesday, March 9th. Bemused audiences tuned in to an Athens news station to listen to an evidently uncomfortable police spokesperson. How could he not be? He must explain a rather embarrassing incident: days earlier, on March 5th, the police had tear-gassed Manolis Glezos in the face for trying to prevent a youth’s brutal arrest [photo at http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1139832]. Glezos is 88 years old today; it was almost 70 years ago, on May 30 1941, in Nazi-occupied Athens that he and Apostolos Santas climbed up the Acropolis and tore down the Swastika – an action for which he was arrested and tortured the following year.

Trying to justify the police’s action and to show that things must stay under control at any cost, the spokesperson made quite a revealing statement: “if the local police fail at their task”, he claimed, “the EU and the Greek government are ready to dispatch a 7,000-strong European police force to repress what might seem like an upcoming revolt”. “Imagine it!”, he added, “how would it feel if a foreign policeman was beating you up in the streets of Athens?” A funny question, that one. You would imagine police baton blows feel similar regardless of the passports of those holding them. Whether or not his statement was a slip-of-tongue, it definitely seems to hold some validity: a supra-national police force, the “European Gendarmerie Force” (EGF) does exists already and is prepared to take operations in countries where local governments invite it [http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/oct/eu-gendarmerie-treaty-sept-2007.pdf]. The Greek government have so far declined to answer questions on the issue in parliament. I don’t think Manolis Glezos was expecting to see German public forces on the streets of Athens again in his lifetime. But then again, if they tear-gas the way the Greek cops do, there won’t be that much for anyone to see…

General strikes are more common in Greece than in most European countries – but still, they tend to come in the rate of one or two per year – not per calendar month. Thursday’s general strike is the country’s third (two full-day and one half-day) in the few weeks alone. Panepistimiou Avenue, part of the main protesting route – and one of Athens’ major thoroughfares – has been closed off for a week by strikers of Olympic Air; on March 10th, an attorney general ordered the police to disperse the crowd of about 2,000 who have gathered there.

The country’s official printing-house (where state laws are printed in order to come into effect) is currently occupied by employees in protest against the newly-introduced austerity plan. The general accounting office (this, ironically, in charge of monitoring the effects of the implementation of the austerity plan) is also under occupation by its employees. In the small northern city of Komotini employees at a local troubled company went straight to the source and occupied two of the city’s main bank branches.

December’s revolt had been a strong warning sign. The “700 euro generation” (in a country where everyday living expenses closely compete to the UK’s) had every reason to revolt. The death of a 15-year old boy? Cities smash and burn for days. An “austerity plan” pushing labour rights back by a few decades overnight; severe wage cuts, VAT increases, pension-freezes…

It is Wednesday, March 10th – the eve of the third recent strike in Greece. “I don’t really earn enough to get a cab to tomorrow’s demonstration”, writes a commentator on Athens IMC. “And there’s no public transport, as everyone is participating in the strike. Good for them. We are driving down there tonight, staying with a friend. And we’ll be using the car’s engine oil to wash the streets, our little gift to the thugs of the police’s motor-cycle Delta force.” There is anger building up in Athens’ streets and many expect to see it outpouring in the event that multi-national force descends in the city, if not before… Whether national or international, next time Manolis Glezos takes on the security forces he most certainly will not be alone.

In January all the new wannabe rollergirls headed down to CoLA in Bermondsey to see if we had what it took to participate in the London Roller Girls rookie programme. Although that part of South London might seem like an unlikely destination for a Saturday morning convergence of women of all ages, shapes and sizes, armed with wheels and helmets, around forty of us stormed the changing rooms and filled it with the smell of brand new skates and nervous chattering.

We came from a range of backgrounds; people who hadn’t skated since they were kids, others who had been unsuccessful in the last rookie in-take and were trying again, and some who were proficient at the roller disco jam skating style and wanted to branch out into new territory. We all wobbled down the hallway in our squeaky new skates and into the gym to have a crack at becoming full fledged rookies. I personally felt sick to my stomach when I put my mouth guard in for the first time and looked around at all these girls gliding across the smooth floor effortlessly and with grace. I felt like a lumbering hulk with two left feet and an oversized head due my ill-fitting helmet. I had the distinct impression that I was making a big mistake.

Once we were all in the gym and warmed up, we were split into groups and taught the basic derby skills we were expected to master over the coming four weeks. These included the t-stop, the plough, the one, two and four point falls and derby position (which is basically people skating as if they are taking a shit in a toilet at Reading Festival, as someone helpfully put it). For the next hour the room was exploding with the sound of pads-on-floor and laughing. Every time I threw myself onto the boards my peripheral vision caught multiple other girls throwing themselves down in kamikaze fashion and springing awkwardly back up. It felt like an extreme army boot camp. I can only speak for myself, but having not done much sport except cycling and skiing since school, I felt like I aged about ten years in that two-hour session. My thighs and back were screaming with the exertion of constantly throwing myself up and down and and my legs were beginning to stubbornly resist any attempt to form the required t-stop shape. I looked around me and dozens of other girls were sweating and red-faced, but equally determined and good-natured about the brutality of the first rookie practice.

After learning the basic derby techniques we had to do an assessment in front of all the judges to determine whether we had grasped enough to be able to continue. It felt a bit like I was in a bad high-school cheerleading film with all of them sitting there in their skates with notepads while the uneasy beginners tottered around the track for their perusal. Of course, during my turn I fell flat on my face and lay there for what felt like an eternity before getting up to the sound of some girls clapping and encouraging me to carry on. At points I wondered if I really needed to put myself through this kind of stress, but the experience of learning something new and meeting a whole host of different people convinced me that the balance tipped far more to the positive side than the negative.

At the end of the assessment we all crawled wearily to the changing rooms to get dressed and de-brief about the experience. Everyone was elated with nerves and expectations about the prospect of receiving the dreaded e-mail a few days later which would either confirm our continuation with the programme or tell us ‘better luck next time’. Fortunately for me, I made it through and had the chance to embark on some of the most gruelling and demanding training I have ever done over the next four weeks. My (frequently hungover) body was flung around tracks in time trials, it attempted cross-overs, pace lines, jumping over cones and more falls and stops than I care to remember. I began to truly understand the meaning of the words ’sore coccyx’ and how to stretch properly so that at work on a Sunday I would still be able to bend my legs without excruciating pain. I also began to understand conversations about wheel specifications, gaskets, bearings and toe guards – equipment that was alien to me a few weeks previously. Amongst the other rookies I found girls to chat about the stresses of the week with, to share war wounds with and hopefully develop some real friendships. The relationships emerging from the practices were not strictly limited to the rookies, as I found myself being mentored and encouraged from fully fledged roller girls down at the pub after practice or in the changing rooms beforehand. Most girls made themselves available to re-adjust an askew helmet, lend some pads, commiserate over the horror of cone-jumping and tell us to keep trying.

After four weeks we were once again put through our paces in a vigorous assessment designed to slim us down to a smaller group and send some girls away to work on specific skills before the next in-take session. We were assessed on everything we had learned in front of judges who noted our strong and weak areas. Although at this practice the atmosphere was pretty low because nobody wanted to loose any of their new-found friends, we got on with it and performed to the best of our ability, making sure to encourage those who seemed to struggle or who fell down during a trial.

I’m happy to say I survived the lion’s den and will be continuing with the rookie programme for the time being. It was really sad to see our diminished numbers at the following training, but those I spoke to were positive that now we would get more intensive coaching because the coach had fewer people to watch over. Additionally there were fewer girls to crash into and knock over in the enclosed space of Brixton Recreation Centre. We felt this could only be a good thing, as we’re determined to carry on and show LRG what us rookies are made of.

February was a manic month. I am ill and broken and poor. But it was all worth it. I made it back to Berlin and hung out with some great people, ate some great food, and saw the sights. I saw some awesome bands this month like Vitamin X, Billy Bragg, Brothers and Sauna Youth (all in the last 7 days actually…). And I picked up a stack of sweet records. Good times, these.

Anyhow, this is March’s show and there’s the usual mix of punk and hardcore. There’s also another live set – this time of my band Like Grenades. Thanks to Rich Smith as always for making that happen and for his support in keeping this part of the show going.

As always, if you cant download the show and would like a burnt copy to play in your stereo, PM me. Else you can download the show as an MP3, stream it or subscribe to the podcast for free using iTunes and other podcast catchers at http://tensongspodcast.blogspot.com/

Track Listing

1. Vivian Girls – The End (From the Everything Goes Wrong CD on In The Red Records)

2. Psyched To Die – Conditioned To Fail (From the Year 1 CD on Dirtnap Records)
3. Bloody Gears – Bite The Head (From the self released Demo 2009 tape)
4. 86 Mentality – Gonna Hafta Fight (From the Goin’ Nowhere Fast CD on Grave Mistake Records)
5. Social Circkle – I Don’t Want (From the I’ve Got Afflictions 7 inch on No Way Records)

6. Nobunny – Somewhere New (From the Love Visions CD on 1-2-3-4-Go! Records)
7. This Is My Fist! – All That Is Wrong (From the split 7 inch with The Marked Men on No Idea Records)
8. Pinhead Gunpowder – Landlords (From the Kick Over The Traces CD on Recess Records)
9. Wegrowbeards – Everything Changes (From the split tape with Cynics)

Like Grenades, Live @ Planet Sounds
10. Like Grenades – Clocking Out
11. Like Grenades – Morning Sickness
12. Like Grenades – Vaccum
13. Like Grenades – Flat Earth
Like Grenades are – Sam (Drums),Tommy (Guitar), Al (Bass), Phil (Vocals). They have a 5 song tape available and you can contact them via their myspace page.This set was recorded by Rich Smith. Rich has a mobile studio (he doesn’t work for Planet Sounds), doesn’t charge much, does a great job and is an all-round good guy. You should totally drop him an email at rich_smith@live.co.uk if you’re on the south coast and want to record.

14. Cynics – In The Valley (From the split tape with Wegrowbeards)

Notes:
1. This was put together on my family’s PC using Audacity and a USB record player, some over played CDs and 7″s and a cheap Internet microphone. Plus this MP3 is a lower bit rate than most in order to keep it at a manageable size. So if there’s a song on here that you dig and want to buy the record it came off, don’t be put off if it sounds kinda rough or scuzzy. I can guarantee it’ll sound better in the original format.
2. I asked the bands (Bloody Gears, Wegrowbeards, Cynics, Social Circkle), the labels (In The Red, Dirtnap, No Idea, Recess) or Cam at Southern Lovin’ (Nobunny) if it was OK to podcast their songs and they were cool with it. I think one of the great things about the Internet is that it’s really easy to get in contact with people whose music you dig and I’d like to take time to thank them for allowing me to play their songs. Cheers!
3. It goes without saying that if you like this podcast, let your friends know about it! Please? Thank you. And get in touch too if you dig it/hate it/have any tips. tensongspodcast [at] googlemail [dot] com or leave a comment. And if you think you might want to have a go at making your own podcast, here’s a step by step guide to How I Made This Show.

Titles include:

Flying Close to the Sun by Cathy Wilkerson
Flying Close to the Sun is the stunning memoir of a white middle-class girl from Connecticut who became a member of the Weather Underground, one of the most notorious groups of the 1960s.

13 Years of Good Luck
To celebrate their thirteenth anniversary, Microcosm put together this compilation of work from their authors and artists.

As The World Burns by Derrick Jensen
Two of America’s most talented activists team up to deliver a bold and hilarious satire of modern environmental policy in this fully illustrated graphic novel.

About Anarchism
About Anarchism, by Nicolas Walter, “This is a struggle which we may not win and which may never end but which is still worth fighting…” a pocket size book from Freedom Press.

Off The Map
A punk rock vision quest told in the tradition of the anarchist travel story, Off the Map is narrated by two young women as they discard their maps, fears, and anything resembling a plan, and set off on the winds of the world.

Anarchy in Action
An excellent accessible introduction for those new to anarchism. Ward gives a wide-ranging analysis, drawing on examples from housing, education, the workplace and the family to name but a few, to demonstrate that the roots of anarchist practice are not as alien or quixotic as they might at first seem, but lie precisely in the ways that people have always tended to organise themselves when left alone to do so.

plus a load more!

Shop link

The current shifts in political and social currents should force us to consider the effect of our actions. Sometimes the use of dated tactics without thought can hinder attempts for social change. In this article Curtis Hayes reflects on the controversial possibility that voting, alongside direct action, can slow down the machine.

An Anti-Authoritarian consideration of tactical voting

As this year’s general election looms and the parties prepare to barrage the public with the same old empty promises and cleverly devised advertising campaigns, the millions of us disenchanted with the present political system are left with, what is for some and not so much for others, a difficult decision to make: to vote or not to vote?

For the vast majority of the voting public the solution is simple; vote for the same party they voted for last time and continue to complain about a lack of discernible change. For the disinterested and the apathetic the answer is even more simple, so simple in fact that the question barely exists in the first place. The anti-authoritarian, however, does not face such an easy decision.

There is an intrinsic anti-authoritarian belief that government, particularly in its current formulation, is an unnecessary evil seizing the rights and freedoms of the masses and this belief typically results in a refusal vote in government elections, but in such desperate times some of us are re-evaluating if refusing to vote is still the best path to take.

The main conflict with voting for anti-authoritarian’s arises out of the social contract that taking part in a vote automatically includes; the validation of democracy as a suitable method of decision making and the agreement that all voters honour whichever decision the majority of the electorate determines to be the best, regardless of one’s personal thoughts about it, or face the punishment.

Subjecting your free will to public scrutiny like this is damaging to the anti-authoritarian’s principles whatever the outcome. If you are on the losing side, you are subject to the authority of the winning side. If you are on the winning side, you are seen to be legitimising that authority, inflicting your rules on the lives of others. Clearly, win or lose, authority is acknowledged as something to be obeyed and herein lies the conflict with fundamental anti-authoritarian beliefs. As the most widely cited criticism of democracy states ‘democracy is the oppression of the minority by the majority’.

Voting is seen, even by a huge proportion of those that take part in it, as an ultimately futile endeavour. Few of us truly expect to see any radical change from Labour government to Conservative government and back again. The same collective of rich businessmen and bankers are as omnipresent as ever whichever party is victorious, Whether we see a Labour or a Conservative victory this year the same hands will remain, they just might be in different pockets.

However, despite my belief in the validity of the anti-voting argument, and the obvious contradiction of an anti-authoritarian voting in a general election, when I look around me I can’t shake the feeling that maybe, by refusing to vote, I’m playing right into the government’s hands. As the BNP becomes more and more popular and Labour and the Conservatives somehow become even less distinguishable from one another there is clearly no hope for the near-future of our rights, and as a proponent of freedom I wonder if my electoral absence is contributing to that, or at the very least not helping to stop it. The fascists are certainly still voting, and I’m sure they’re glad that I’m not.

So is there anything that can be gained from voting for one who doesn’t support the current system? I can only find one potential benefit, a tactical vote for smaller parties, not in the hope that they win (it won’t ever happen, and if it did, things would be just the same), but simply in the hope that they weaken the Labour/Conservative majority and act as a thorn in the side of the government, slowing down the governmental process. The more disagreeing parties that are arguing in the House of Commons, the harder it will become for new bills to be passed aiming to control even more elements of our lives. And in the meantime, direct action must be taken.

Whichever party gets elected this year, or in any foreseeable general election, the ship is still steering in the same direction; an Orwellian society with concentrated power in the hands of a minority and an increasingly impotent proletariat, and the more entrenched in that society we become, the easier the anti-authoritarian will become to ignore. The more impotent the masses are, the less likely any form of revolution is to occur.

So the anti-authoritarian is presented with a predicament: a tactical vote in an election they believe to be futile for a party unrepresentative of their views, attempting to limit the damage to their freedom as much as is realistically possible, or flat-out refuse and run the risk of tipping the balance in the favour of the greater of countless evils?

Whether the anti-authoritarian’s determination not to be implicated in modern democracy is outweighed by the desperation of the times or not, one thing is crucial: voting must never be a replacement for direct political action. We must not allow our voices or actions to be reduced to a single choice every four or five years of which leaders we want to lead us, having never asked to be led in the first place. The vote is not the extent of our opinions and we must not be tricked into believing that we truly have a say in this system. As Emma Goldman famously said, ‘If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal’, but maybe it can act as a spanner in the works?

February and it’s still fucking cold, although at least the snows gone and I finally got paid. January’s a long month innit. Anyhow, this show features the second of our studio live sets. Rich Smith was kind enough to record a studio set from the Southampton hardcore band Defier for me that’ll appeal to anyone who likes modern hardcore bands like Have Heart and Blacklisted. You can hear the four tracks from that session for the first time ever on this show. Thanks to Rich and Defier for making this happen and keeping the ball rolling with what is going to be a regular part of the podcast. As well as this, I picked up the “Toronto’s Burning” compilation LP on Schizophrenic Records so this shows fairly heavy on the TOHC. Enjoy. – Phil Chokeword

Track Listing

1. Fucked Up – Litany (From the “Epics In Minutes” CD on Deranged Records)

2. School Jerks – Guest List (From the “Toronto’s Burning” LP on Schizophrenic Records)
3. Cloak/Dagger – Don’t Need A… (From the “Don’t Need A…” 7” on Grave Mistake Records)
4. Tubers – The Expense Of Flight (From the “Anachronous” CD on No Idea Records)
5. On Point – Time Cant Come Back (From the “Look Me In The Eyes” demo – contact them via their myspace)

6. Sauna Youth – E2 Bang Bang (From their self released demo tape – contact them via their myspace)
7. Dear Landlord – Oakland (From the “Dream Homes” CD on No Idea Records)
8. Dangerloves – You & Me (From the “Toronto’s Burning” LP on Schizophrenic Records)
9. Sexy – Smoking Popes (From the “Por Vida” CD on Plan It X Records)

Defier, Live @ Planet Sounds
10. Defier – Crossing Wires
11. Defier – Outlive (Guns Up Cover)
12. Defier – Small Town Strain
13. Defier – Resolution
Defier are – Spence (drums), Andy (guitar), Steve (bass), and Tommy (vocals). They have a self released demo available and you can contact them via their myspace page.This set was recorded by Rich Smith. Rich has a mobile studio (he doesn’t work for Planet Sounds), doesn’t charge much, does a great job and is an all-round good guy. You should totally drop him an email at rich_smith@live.co.uk if you’re on the south coast and want to record.

14. Eddy Current Suppression Ring – It’s All Square (From the “S/T” CD on Goner Records)

Notes:

1. This was put together on my family’s PC using Audacity and a USB record player, some over played CDs and 7″s and a cheap Internet microphone. Plus this MP3 is a lower bit rate than most in order to keep it at a manageable size. So if there’s a song on here that you dig and want to buy the record it came off, don’t be put off if it sounds kinda rough or scuzzy. I can guarantee it’ll sound better in the original format.
2. I asked the bands (On Point, Sauna Youth, Defier), the labels (Grave Mistake, Deranged, No Idea, Schizophrenic) or Cam at Southern Lovin’ (Eddy Current) if it was OK to podcast their songs and they were cool with it. I think one of the great things about the Internet is that it’s really easy to get in contact with people whose music you dig and I’d like to take time to thank them for allowing me to play their songs. Cheers!
3. It goes without saying that if you like this podcast, let your friends know about it! Please? Thank you. And get in touch too if you dig it/hate it/have any tips. tensongspodcast [at] googlemail [dot] com or leave a comment. And if you think you might want to have a go at making your own podcast, here’s a step by step guide to How I Made This Show.

How To Listen To The Show:

I’ve uploaded the podcast to bliptv. I’m a little confused by RSS feeds and all that bumph, but I think that they sort all this for me. This means that it should be pretty easy to subscribe to the podcast. As I understand it, you need to cut and paste this url into your podcast catcher – http://tensongspodcast.blip.tv/rss – or if you use itunes, hopefully you’ll be able to do the same thing if you click here.