Friday 4 June 2021

Here comes the ice-cream man


Today's date has been in my diary for a while now: later this morning I will have a second shot of Astrazeneca in my arm. So that's me all jabbed up then. I know a few people reading this will also be double-bubbled too; so if you want to buy me a coffee (or a beer!) there's never been a better time to meet up...

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June 4th was also something of a red letter day back in 1979. On a sunny afternoon some 41 years ago I left my parents house with L plates on my Vauxhall Viva Rockbox - I returned a couple of hours later with said plates in a waste bin outside the Test Centre. Over a million miles later and I'm still on the road.

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But today also marks a far more harrowing anniversary. On this day in 1989 a student lead pro-democracy demonstration in Tienemen Square, Bejing, which had started peacefully seven weeks earlier, was brutally suppressed by heavily armed Chinese troops - complete with tanks. The ensuing massacre resulted in a death toll which has still to this day not been verified - but estimates put it at 10,000 minimum.

Grinding gears alert - when Blur released their eighth studio album, The Magic Whip, in 2015 it contained a (seemingly) jolly little song called Ice Cream Man. But it had dark undertones. Damon Albarn explained to Billboard magazine: "The sinister ice cream man with his white gloves. I set him in context of the (Tienemen) protest. He's a policeman and the whip is the state control. But the ice cream man is really sinister."

Blur - Ice Cream Man (2105)

When the band were promoting the album on Record Store day later that year this was how they reached out to their Californian fans - an ice cream van rocking up at various record shops selling ice cream and records. The eagle eyed among you will spot Amoeba Records - the best record store in the world, bar none. Fight me.


5 comments:

  1. A memorable date all round... Hope your jab goes well. That sounds a bit strange but you know what I mean. I felt a bit iffy the night after the second one but it passed. And now I'm so looking forward to getting out in the world again too (just mentioned on Alyson's blog that I've three lunches booked in three weeks, it's gonna blow my mind). So hopefully, yes, will actually be able to buy you that coffee/beer in the not-too-distant, who knows?!

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    1. It went well, C - never felt a thing.

      Who knows indeed? (Black, no sugar).

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  2. Funnily enough I got my second AZ jab on Saturday and luckily no flu-like symptoms this time which was just as well as I had a birthday to celebrate. A year on from the big birthday and still couldn’t do much so the original plan now moved on another year.

    My first friend to pass her driving test did it on 7/7/77.

    Always learn something new here so thanks for sharing the musical connection to the Tienemen Square massacre - A harrowing anniversary as you say.

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    1. A belated Happy Birthday to you, Alyson! I've vowed never to 'celebrate' another birthday ever again.

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