I’ll be there – My life with the Four Tops – Book Review

Having been a lover of the Four Tops music for pretty much as long as I can remember I obtained a copy of Duke Fakir’s biography of the Motown group, their lives and musical ups and downs.

 

 

To be honest I found it a compelling yet somewhat odd book. Fakir was clearly a very religious man and goodness me did he write about it! From my perspective, as an atheist, he over did it but then again was he just typical of his fellow American Bible bashers? The use of profanities throughout the text jarred a little not least because it was alongside his religious views.

I was only really interested in the music, Motown and how this super-group built their incredibly long-lasting relationship with each other. A relationship which literally lasted until death they did depart one by one with Fakir bring the last to pass on quite recently. And speaking of them passing on, I learned from the book that they were all booked onto that fateful flight which crashed at Lockerbie but their tickets had to be cancelled due to recording taking place in London.

I recall seeing the Tops in Southport, Manchester and Liverpool on five occasions and they always put on a great show. My favourite of their hits is probably their first one – Baby I need your Loving and here’s a YouTube link to them singing it:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUOntQocGWk

I wasn’t surprised to read that Levi Stubbs, their lead singer, had been offered solo recording contracts, he was after all a great singer with a natural and powerful baritone voice. However, he refused anything that did not include them all; a loyalty which you don’t see a lot of in the music industry.

Lawrence Payton, the first to pass on, was the group’s musical expert and Duke was their day to day manager/organiser. At the time Duke’s book was published, in 2022, he was the last of the original members left alive and performing. The passing of Obie, Lawrence and Levi clearly left a huge hole in his life. They’d performed together, originally as the Four Aims, since 1953!

Unsurprisingly there were references to their experiences of the racial divide in the southern US states but at the same time their music was, of course, crossing such divides as many white Americans loved their songs.

We’ll never see their like again and I’m so glad I saw and heard all of the original members 4 of the 5 times at concerts and despite my reservations this was a book well worth reading.

Here's an interesting British Library interview with Duke about his life:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Ud0E2n13I&t=4222s

 

RIP Terry Baldwin

I’ve received the sad news that former Aintree Village Parish Councillor Terry Baldwin has passed on.

I recall sharing a great community campaign with Terry as we and indeed many others, I might add, tried to save Aintree Library from closure. We lost, but Terry was a great public speaker and quite a character too. Here he is in full flow at an outdoor protest meeting about the then proposed closure of Aintree Library -

I also recall that he, like me, had a trade union activist past and it was probably one reason why we got along well. Terry was Chairman of Aintree Village Parish Council when a new GP surgery was opened. Here’s Terry at that event in 2006 -

 

Away from politics and community campaigning Terry was involved, at high level, with St. John Ambulance and I recall seeing him standing proudly in his uniform at civic events at Maghull Town Hall where St. John Ambulance volunteers practised their skills. Indeed, I think it was Terry who presented me, in my year as Mayor of Maghull, with a model of a St. John Ambulance vehicle which still sits in a display cabinet in the Council Chamber of Maghull Town Hall. It was to celebrate their acquiring a new ambulance, if I remember correctly.

Terry was presented with the Maghull Town Council Civic Award in 2004 and it was very much because of his volunteer St. John Ambulance work.

So goodbye Terry, yours was a life well lived and you were liked and respected by so many people.

 

A terrible loss - The Southport – Preston Line – A new booklet 

marking 60 yrs since the electric services to Crossens ceased.

I’ve just read an excellent booklet produced by the Class 502 Preservation Trust to mark 60 years since the loss of the 3^rd rail electrified service from Southport out to Crossens in September 1964. The following day the whole route from Southport to Preston closed; all part of the short-sighted Beeching cuts.

Front cover of booklet

 

The line is now lost to housing in so many places that reopening is impossible yet in 1963, just one year prior to closure, the booklet tells us that the line was carrying 2m passengers a year! With all the building along the line from Southport through Crossens to Preston it would clearly be viable 2024. 

Back cover of booklet

 

Even if closure was seen to be the right thing to do in 1964 the trackbed should, like with so many other lost lines, have been safeguarded for future possible reopening but UK politics has always been short-term and short-sighted.

Anyway, back to the booklet which runs to 40 plus pages. It’s full of colour photos, great captioning and is a wonderful insight into what has been lost. I really enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to railway enthusiasts, and those interested in Southport’s history.

It’s available from the Class 502 Preservation Trust priced at £8.50 and their online shop is via this link - 

  https://www.class502.org.uk/shop/

 

A missed opportunity? – The new Merseyrail Class 777 fleet

 

 

A class 777 EMU at Maghull Nth Station - My photo

I’ve been pondering in ways that only a railway enthusiast can probably ponder. My ‘light bulb’ idea is that Merseytravel (the public transport body for the Liverpool City Region, which has recently been renamed to something so long I can’t recall it) missed a trick when they ordered the whole new Class 777 EMU fleet all in the same black and yellow livery.

Yes, by all means have a few in the new livery but why not have done a handful in each of the former railway operator’s liveries on Merseyside? The Mersey Railway, LMS, BR and indeed the various liveries carried by the Class 507/508s in the post-BR days. I guess one answer is likely to be cost and the other, no one thought about it as a possibility.

Here’s a few ideas from my own photographic collection. I think all the photos were purchases from the Class 502 Preservation Trust - https://www.class502.org.uk/ - I'm unable to credit the actual photographers as I don't know them.*

 

A 502 in an LMS tribute livery

A 502 in BR Blue livery

A 502 in a later BR livery

* Please visit the 502 Trust website.Also, if you know who I should credit the 502 photos to please let me know.

 

Appeasing the far right, austerity, poor politics, inability to sell policies - Labour's present troubles

Here's is a link to an interesting YouTube video (which I suggest you look at before reading this blog piece) if, like me, you do politics and are pondering Labour's troubles after only weeks in government.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWKUdFLNCl4

Starmer, to me, is not good at politics a point once more or less made by his deputy who said something like he's the least political person I know, or words to that effect. Yes, the hand he's been dealt is a very difficult one but my feeling is that he's not good at defining a direction of travel or indeed selling it to voters.

His politics seem right of centre so you'd think our right-wing media would take to him yet they don't as they want the further or far right to be running the show. On that basis Labour's attempts, over many years, to appease the right seem to have failed on pretty much every level, as indeed they were always likely to.

Being a predominately a party of the working-class means Labour has always been hampered by having to be a party that covers the far right to the far left and everything in-between. An impossible task, of course, but one they've stuck with over generations. However, they came unstuck when many of their right-wing members and supporters backed Brexit and then Boris Johnson. Many of those are now supporters of Reform and they're not coming back to Labour soon or even ever. But Labour wants them back in their broad church because that's where they think these working-class right-wingers belong.

Labours problem over the past 10 years has been one of trying hard to keep or attract back the working-class right-wingers whilst ignoring their progressive voters, in effect taking them for granted. Getting only a low 30's percentage of votes in the last election (although with a ridiculously large majority of seats) is now a problem as they won because voters wanted the Tories out at all costs. The patience of those voters, many of whom will have been progressives, is wearing thin already not least because Labour has refused to address child poverty (2 child benefit cap) and has attacked state pensioners by taking away the winter fuel allowance.

The big error of judgement seems to have been not to deal with the need to increase some taxes, especially on the wealthy and hugely profitable energy companies first, before even thinking of more austerity measures. You have to bear in mind Labour has consistently opposed austerity measures since 2010 only to bring in more of their own as soon as they get the keys for No.10. Yes, OK, Gordon Brown actually brought in the first austerity measures in response to the 2007 financial crash and of course Labour pledged to make £1b more in cuts in the 2010-2015 Parliament than the disliked Coalition government actually made. But Labour gained the moral high ground by looking to be opposed to virtually all austerity measures and now that has come back to bite them as they’re making more austerity cuts!

So poor politics and adopting political stances only to do the opposite; reminds us all of Nick Clegg and Tuition Fees does it not! Team that with losing members and supporters to the far right and trying to appease the right-wing and it’s no wonder Labour is in a mess.

But I would say all that as a progressive, wouldn't I? It really is is up to the right of centre voters to embrace Labour unless they want the further right Tories back or even the madness of the far right of course.

We progressives are now left with backing the left of centre Lib Dems or further left Greens.