ANARCHY IN THE PUB: Celebrating Joy's birthday at a G8 prisoner support bennefit gig.

Cosmo and the Pondlife MCs, come and 'ave a go if ou think you are 'ard enough!

Had two nights out in one this evening, a sit down curry and a gig.

The evening started off with me going, along with an old friend Joy and her parents, to a local Indian Restaurant to celebrate her birthday. The restaurant is slightly outside of civilisation, set in a refurbished building that used to form part of the old Britannia Colliery. There is no sign of the colliery now and only local knowledge gives an insight into the buildings former use.

I like the place for two reasons, one: it has its own car park so you can walk straight in (a massive advantage now the weather has suddenly and quite dramatically turned wintry); two: the fact that the food there is really rather splendid, always a good when eating out! We sat there in the warm for two hours savouring the meal, vegetable Jalfrezi for me, then after the melon ice-cream I took Joy’s parents home.

Then Joy and I headed for Dempsey’s in Cardiff for a benefit gig for those that got nicked at the G8 in Scotland last July. There was a great atmosphere there, with loads of friends old and new, mostly from the activist scene.

As I walked in the local paper was thrust at me with an article about the P.A.D. being burnt out after it had been evicted earlier in the week. Maybe ‘anarchist utopia’ is stretching it a bit, but for the two weeks it was open it was an inspiring place to be. But the NHS were having none of it and, despite the fact that they do not have any plans for the building, the building was evicted at the beginning of this week. It was decided not to resist and the building was actually vacated before the bailiffs arrived.

But this is where it all started to get surreal. In the early hours of Thursday
morning the building was unceremoniously ‘torched’. The timing of this
maybe a coincidence, but one cannot help but wonder. Was it a member
of the arsonists’ wing of the NHS? Was it a state sponsored agent
provocateur? Was it someone who does not like anarchists saying ‘don’t
come back’? Was it JD Whetherspoon trying to get us to go back to his
pub? Was it a Wales On Sunday reporter trying to create a story? Or was
it really just a coincidence? Answers on a postcard  to the local plod please.
One thing is certain, it couldn’t have been anarchists, they can never find
their lighters!

Anyway, the atmosphere at the gig was warm and friendly, and we were entertained by ‘Adult Playthings’, performing their first ever gig; Kilnaboy, the folky jigabout crew that have developed a reputation for being the CAN house band; and Pondlife MCs, radical rap rockers featuring none other than me mate Cosmo on the mike, quite appropriate really given that he had his collar felt at the G8. I enjoyed seeing all me old mates and Joy enjoyed getting out of the house to celebrate her birthday, all in all a bit of a result.