This song pick takes us back to the very first Wez G Random Song which was from the Vangelis – Bladerunner soundtrack: Rachel’s Song Westworld sample the Bladerunner theme music with this #techno classic, with a haunting vocal sample about ‘Technocop’, whose image I have recreated for this post using…
The analysis of the 2011 ‘Blackberry’ riots in England reveals conflicting perspectives on the role of inequalities. Conservatives view the riots as lawlessness driven by moral decline, while radicals highlight socio-economic disenfranchisement as a key cause. This essay urges addressing underlying inequalities to prevent future unrest rather than merely punishing the rioters.
View More 2011 Blackberry Riots, United Kingdom
Roberto Saviano is the Italian Salman Rushdie. After writing his exposé on the Neapolitan mafia that is the subject of this book, Gomorrah, Saviano had serious death threats from organised crime and had to go into hiding and lives under security protection to this day. He is only a young…
View More Review: Gommorah – Italy’s Other Mafia – by Roberto Saviano
Graham Greene is a classic early twentieth century English novelist. I remember studying Brighton Rock for my school GCSEs.The Third Man is set in the murky underworld of post World War 2 Vienna. The Austrian capital has been quartered into four allied zones: English, French, American and Russian. A front…
View More Review: The Third Man and The Fallen Idol – by Graham Greene
This book is an academic study of two of the major opponents of Western governments today. It examines both Narcotraffickers and Cartels and also Terrorists, mainly Islamic terrorists. Not only does it cover the methods and practices of these two criminal enterprises in their working practices, the book also examines…
View More Review: From Pablo to Osama – Trafficking and Terrorist Networks, Government Bureaucracies, and Competitive Adaptation – by Michael Kenney
This is the third Grillo installment that I have tackled and Ioan is an author who is a gritty investigative journalist who tends to put himself into quite dangerous situations in order to explore very controversial and often violent global subjects. Following on from Grillo’s groundbreaking work on Mexican cartels,…
View More Review: Blood, Gun, Money – How America Arms Gangs and Cartels – by Ioan Grillo
Darren Campbell is one of the fastest men in the world and has won Olympic Gold. I’m probably one of the slowest men in the world and know next to nothing about athletics. The Olympics though are unmissable, especially the mens’ sprints. Campbell achieved the zenith of his success in…
View More Review: Track Record by Darren Campbell with Trystan Bevan
Joey is a teacher of mine at MLANG in Cardiff University. This is his first book. It explores prison writing in Latin America and looks at abolitionism of the penal system and draws on some really rather delicate themes that expose the dark brutality of prisons in a developing continent…
View More Review: Prison Writing of Latin America by Joey Whitfield
Ingrid Betancourt was one of the most high profile political prisoners in the world during her captivity in the Colombian Jungle at the hands of the FARC-EP, Colombia’s left wing communist guerrillas. A brutal civil war has raged for the best part of 60 years in this Southern hemisphere country.…
View More Review: Even Silence has an End – My six years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle – by Ingrid Betancourt
This is the third Simon Spence book that I have read. He is a very talented music journalist from Manchester with a taste for documenting, wild, stylish cultural movements that have emerged from the Madchester craziness. Excess All Areas covers perhaps the most successful and innovative band to have ridden…
View More Review: Happy Mondays – Excess All Areas – by Simon Spence
I’ve already read a Matthew Collin book – This is Serbia Calling – so I was chuffed when I stumbled upon this work, a history of UK dance music culture. As a DJ and Promoter for 24 years I’m quite aware of a lot of the history of dance music…
View More Review: Altered State – The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House – by Matthew Collin
I was a DJ myself back in the 1990s and although I never played alongside Brandon Block, I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times. Once, on his father’s birthday in a London bar/club, I had just got out of one of my early mental health hospital…
View More Review: The Life and Lines of Brandon Block by Matt Trollope
The notoriety of the Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, is present in their legacy. These were the most infamous London gangsters to emerge during the 1960s. Their older brother, Charlie, used to try and keep his distance from Firm activities, yet he had a lot of insider knowledge of operations.…
View More Review: Doing The Business – The Final Confession of the Senior Kray brother by Colin Fry and Charlie Kray
Author, Norman Parker served a 24 year jail sentence for murder. On his release, wanting to experience life to the fullest, he took advantage of his writing skills to become a journalist for lads mags and the Daily Express and set about tackling the niche market of visiting dangerous places…
View More Review: Dangerous People, Dangerous Places – by Norman Parker
I read this book really quickly- it was enticing and a good tale. Gypsy Jane is something of a crazy phenomenon who rocked the London underworld with some pretty brutal firsthand tales. It didn’t take much for the Gran to pay a visit to any dissidents and she’d be brandishing…
View More Review: Gypsy Jane – by Jane Lee with David Jarvis