What a terrible, terrible result greeted those of sane mind on Friday morning.
I’m still in a state of shock and find myself hoping that somehow this nightmare can be halted, the damage curbed and sensibility prevail. As Bob Pollard says “Everybody’s got a hold on hope, it’s the last thing that’s holding me.”
So I’ve been in a state that I can only liken to a hangover, a walking dream of fuzzy-headed lack of comprehension. Life has had some real positives since but I was locked down by the impact of what Out could mean. I’m starting to shake that off, step away from the bar and get some distance, level-headedness again and so to try and push that along and get back to something resembling normality I pinged a message to a friend: “Out of Euope; Top five songs by European Artists”.
A sort of ‘here’s what we’re gonna lose’ type thing.
This was mine:
Sigur Ros – Starálfur
I could’ve gone with practically anything from this band. At the top of the tree, though, would be either this or #1 Untitled from () which gives me goosebumps each time I hear the start but this one, with it’s palindromic strings, means a whole lot to me.
Refused – New Noise
Can I scream?
Noir Desir – Un Jour En France
There’s a huge amount of controversy about whether it’s still ok to listen to this band. I’m not going to go into it or even dare to pretend I can offer an opinion as it’s one of those that leaves me startled.
For myself, though, Noir Desir represent something of a happy memory. When my now-wife and I were dating and living in Paris I remember being stuck in traffic on the périphérique and then, amidst all the usual dross on the radio that was removed from what I could tune into, hearing a heavier, rocking sound. It was this. I came to hear them after Bertrand Cantat was already in prison so my enjoyment of them (songs like Lost or Le vent nous portera and Tostaky (Le continent)) is more tied to my own time in France and with my wife than anything else.
Girls In Hawaii – Misses
Girls In Hawaii are a Belgian band and another that remind me of my time in France as it was my wife who get me into them while she was still living there and we’d played their first album almost non-stop on our first holiday together while driving around Normandy – you can kind of get the idea as to why the Leave vote is such a hard one to bear. They’re a cracking little band who sadly lost their drummer in a car accident after recording their second album. This track, the first new material they released some years after his death, is undoubtedly connected and all the more affective as a result.
Cardigans – My Favourite Game
Because this was everywhere at the tail end of the 90s and re-introduced the band that everyone was tired of after the overplaying of Lovefool. A great album too.
So that’s my list. It’s not perfect, and it was a spontaneous one. If I’m in an editing / revising one I know already I can saw there’s two Swedish acts there, no Last Days of April, no Air and no Nouveau Western which deserves more than an honourable mention of only for its video. But then I could, and may, just as easily do a Top 5 for some of the EU countries alone.
However, yes, along with Nouveau Western I’ll add some honourable mentions for:
Last Days of April; Feel The Sun Again (see my previous post on Aspirins and Alcohol for more)
Eric Serra / Arthur Simms: It’s Only Mystery (if you’re going to watch Subway don’t get the dubbed version)
Mumbling About... 
I was kinda wondering how you might feel about this. From this side of the pond, strikes us being a disastrous choice. What exactly was Cameron thinking when he called for this referendum? What next, voting to get out of NATO?
My understanding is that the vote is not binding, that Parliament can refuse to ratify it, Scotland can do likewise, or Cameron can just ignore it. Here’s hoping cooler heads prevail. Meantime, keep calm and don’t worry. 😀
To say I’m in a state of despair would be about right though, as I said, I’m trying to pull myself out of that and look at facts rather than get lost.
It feels like, especially to those of us that owe their happiness to the existence of the EU, that the rhetoric of hate peddled by cretins like Nigel Farage is what won. There were a lot of reasons people voted Leave but the fact remains that they chose an ugly bunch of bed-fellows to make their point.
Some answers to your questions though:
Cameron had to – it was a ridiculous campaign promise in order to lure the knuckle-dragging UKIP supporters into putting an X next to the Conservative candidate at the last General Election.
As for what’s next, it’s still wide open…..
Out was NOT the majority choice. Only 26% of the population voted for it, I console myself with that fact. It wasn’t even the majority of the electorate, just those that voted that Thursday. The problem was that not enough Remainers went out to vote as they assumed we’d stay in.
Even last night there was a huge protest at Westminster to keep us in.
A poll on Sunday revealed over 1 million Out voters regret their vote. They were lied to and it was made clear on Friday morning.
There’s no guarantee that whoever takes over from Cameron will invoke Article 50 – leadership of the party is now a poisoned chalice as whoever pushes the button, as it were, will go down as the worst PM in history.
The referendum isn’t legally binding. Our “constitution” as is (it’s not a set thing here like yours) states it has to first be approved by Parliament and they an vote it down. I, like so many others, have lobbied my MP to do just that.
There may well be a snap General Election too – if a party campaigns on the promise of keeping us IN then that will be seen as a mandate that over-rides the Referendum.
It’s not over yet. Markets are recovering and the sky hasn’t fallen.
Keep on keeping on.
It’ll be your turn to see if you can out Trump our choice soon.
Thanks for the insight, both political and personal. And as to Trump, no guarantees but if that bloviating fucking arsehole doesn’t lose in a landslide to Hillary, I’ll eat that proverbial hat.
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