Hey ho, I’m dipping into a new musical genre so go easy on me. Redpillboy straying into the world of hip hop is a bit like Jeremy Clarkson stumbling onto public transport or Boris Johnson turning up in a working men’s club for a pint of bitter and a game of darts. If you thought I’d rambled when writing about indie music, you ain’t read nothin’ yet! Take my hand (for both our sakes) and walk with me through the rather strange world of dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip.........

Although the US has a new President and the UK has a Labour government, little seems to have changed in our attitudes to Latin America. Our views, as articulated in the mainstream media, seem to depend less on whether a particular nation is democratic and peaceful than whether the leader in question can be manipulated to do our bidding. Recent developments in Colombia would appear to support the view that it’s business as usual for the US in Latin America.

Hailing from the Bard’s town of Stratford Upon Avon, Resolution 242 are the latest of our discoveries from an emerging and very rich seam of British musical talent. While bland R&B artists try to bore the nation to death – or at least divert us from more important issues than someone’s fat booty – and Cowell & Co try to fabricate the next big thing (tailor made to wrap tomorrow’s fish and chips), bands like Resolution 242 are serving up very palatable tunes and plenty of food for thought. Listen carefully, red pill people, we can hear the sound of change – and it sounds good...

It was by sheer luck that we happened to be holidaying on the Isle of Wight at the height of the Vestas dispute. Having spent a couple of frustrating days waiting for our car to be fixed, we finally made it to the protest and were able to talk to some of the workers, environmental campaigners and trade unionists who were camped outside the plant. We also managed to replenish some of their basic supplies and leave behind a multi-purpose tea strainer. The whole sad story makes a mockery of all the government’s fine words about a green economy.

Recalling the behaviour of the police at Climate Camp* last year, it was with some mixed feelings that we set out for Kingsnorth again. The site of an old coal-fired power station – and the planned site for the first of a new generation of the same dirty beasts – Kingsnorth has become a key focus for the campaign against climate change. Instead of going up the hill to fetch a pail of water, Steve & Gill (from Take the Red Pill) joined social justice campaigners, green activists, bird lovers and subversive jam makers on another jaunt to the deepest dirtiest part of Kent....

If I told you that I was surrounded by a whole bunch of blokes who were pushing me around, pulling ugly faces and throwing beer glasses, you might easily guess that I was in Kettering on a Friday night. You’d be wrong, however, if you thought I was outside some soulless Wetherspoon’s pub being threatened by a bunch of twenty-somethings high on Stella fumes. Over thirty years after the original shock waves struck this green and unpleasantly conservative land, was punk visiting Northamptonshire again in the shape of the UK Subs?

There’s been plenty of coverage of the events unfolding in Iran. Meanwhile, as the eyes of the world – and its media - have been on Tehran, there have been equally disturbing, but much less publicised developments in Peru. The attempted implementation of yet another dodgy US free trade agreement has resulted in protests, heavy-handed suppression and over fifty deaths. Here’s your chance to find out what your newspaper and Sky News may not have told you.

They were described to us as one of the most energetic bands on the live circuit and they didn’t disappoint. Beyond boundless energy and a powerful live performance, these five young men, hailing from Kentucky in the US, actually have something to say.  We were lucky enough to catch Cage the Elephant as they passed through Northampton UK and then we got our hands on a copy of their eponymous debut CD. While millions gawp at Britain’s Got Couch Potatoes, people are still producing fine music. There is still hope.....

As yet another season draws to a close, we think that it’s time to reflect on the state of our beloved national game. We think that it’s become stale and predictable. Too much money at the top and too little elsewhere, players diving at the hint of a tackle, referees spoiling games with daft decisions and players having tantrums to make a two-year-old ashamed. So we’ve made a list of proposed changes – some sensible, some less so – which, if implemented, could make the 2009-10 season one of the fairest and most fun for a long, long while. What do you think......?

Long ago, John the Baptist stood up to King Herod. More recently, The Clash, The Levellers and Billy Bragg spoke out during M*ggie’s reign of terror. So surely we need some “voices in the wilderness” as unrestrained capitalism enriches the few, impoverishes the many and threatens to destroy our planet? Having so often bemoaned the lack of bands with something useful to say, we are now coming across more and more which are bringing a bit of colour to a bleak musical and political landscape. The King Blues, Sonic Boom Six and now, Dirty Revolution.......