Stonehenge as a political monument

The first band I was every in was like the coolest thing ever. The guys were so worldly wise I thought. We were all around sixteen and I was from a small village and they were townies and potheads and they'd been to the Stonehenge free festivals when I didn't even know there was such a thing as a Stonehenge Free Festival.
Took me a while to get there, but I made it last year
And I think it's pretty cool that I'd visited over a hundred stone circles in the UK before I first walked inside the stones of Stonehenge, last summer, at the 2008 free festival.
And I doubt it was much like the original festivals. For a start the original festivals went on for days, and access is now allowed only one night. Rave culture happened between the last festival in 1983 and the first time people had free and open access for solstice in 1999, so it's mostly ravers these days, though the travellers and pagans are there too, of course. No amplified music is allowed, so it's a far cry from the days when the likes of Hawkwind and Robert Plant played there.
But it's was still something to see; the thousands at the stones on a summer solstice. Even if it's just see see how, no matter how big or colourful or loud the crowd, the stones are still the stars. The proper free festivals ended in the Battle of the Beanfield, on June 1st 1984. The police rounded up a bunch of travellers and arrested 500. I picked up a book about it in Glastonbury last week. The tales of police brutality in the book are shocking, and if you search youtube there's quite a bit of footage. I recommend it to anyone interested in alternative lifestyles and infringements of human rights and all that. This stuff is still going on today, but thanks to mobile phones and digital media at everyone's fingertips, it's better reported.

Well, less suppressed, put it that way.
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Was up Birmingham Monday for the Christy Moore concert. There's a pub by the canal where Clinton had a pint when he came here for the G8 summit when he was president. There's a picture of him above the bar, see?







And here's me doing the same. They said he bought a pint of Bank's beer, a packet of pork scratchings. And a hamlet.








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The next post is specially for Maltese Michael, (got your email, will reply soon, cheers). . who visits here and knows Wolverhampton well. Hope you recognise a few of your old haunts buddy!
Our Saturday night pub crawl, (well, a mini one. . ) Started in the Chindit.







Great boozah, live music, real ales and real people. From there we walked down to the Quarterhouse.







And it's gone! They'll probably build some flats.
Next stop the Royal Oak, bikers and that. We call it the dog pub because it's got dogs.








Next, the Combomere. And Saturday night is music night!(I've played here a lot myself). This is my true local, a stone's throw from the flat.








On Saturday there was an eighties indie type on the - I think they called themselves The Toads. I've seen this guy play before and he's good.






Tarrahh!