MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O’CONNOR and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Savage House, Enzo, Madfabulous, and Erupcja
Latest editorial
Ben Lunn: Marxist Notes on Music
Musings on the role of music at the royal funeral and how a democratisation of this art form should have our highest concern as the nations' cultural landscapes depend on it
The Royal Air Force band at the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II
CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
KENNY MacASKILL relishes a fictionalised account of the life and death of the principled Irish anti-colonialist, executed for betraying his English imperial masters
FIONA O’CONNOR admires an ambitious first novel that loosens South Africa’s rainbow collective to examine the racial tensions within
Aussie mining corporation murder, Liverpudlian ex-cop amnesia, a naive vigilante tries to reset capitalism, and the riddle of the dead psychoanalyst
SYLVIA HIKINS is persuaded by an entertaining play that the true miracle of Lourdes would be for attitudes toward disability to change
AROUND this time last year, I wrote in response to the appointment of our previous “minister of culture” that music is not useful to capitalism. This remains the case, however, I did fail to mention the usefulness of music to the state.
The funeral of the monarch on September 19 was an incredible opportunity to not only see the British establishment showing off all their bells and whistles, but to clearly demonstrate music and art as a whole has a very specific role within state apparatus as we see it.
Now, I won’t bemoan the fact that the art in the funeral only showed one side of the late monarch – this is a mental response, using a funeral to critique the deceased is ultimately crass; we can challenge the enforced mourning period, which thankfully the Morning Star has been excellent in covering, but the funeral proper has to be given a certain amount of respect.
Similar stories
ROGER McKENZIE looks at how ancient traditions practiced today can be the cornerstone of anti-imperialism in Africa
MOHAMMAD OMIDVAR, a senior figure in the Tudeh Party of Iran, tells the Morning Star that mass protests are rooted in poverty, corruption and neoliberal rule and warns against monarchist revival and US-engineered regime change
JONATHAN TAYLOR appreciates how, for a black British musician, to walk onstage can be a rebellious act