Hullo,

I’m sorry this Drudion is so short and so late but the events in Russia have really freaked me out. Gone is my need to praise the Athenians for their achieving a spectacular Olympics after I doubted them, and gone is my desire to talk about any current rock’n’roll, though I’ve been listening to loads of wunnerfuel stuff as usual. All I can say is that when the smoke clears across the Beslan school siege, the world will be a different place yet again. For these are not just acts of terrorism but acts of torture and violation that are not synonymous with the IRA or ETA or Hamas or any of those organisations of minorities with genuine grievances. This is a sick new development that takes the innocent children from their parents and denies them water and food and rapes their minds with sustained threats of sudden death. It is intolerable and – suddenly – allows all kinds of new monolithic strategies to be put in place by the authorities in order to ensure no such thing can happen again. When religious fanatics can find ways to interpret their holy book in such a manner, it is time to be very afraid – and time to act.

Please join me at some of the forthcoming shows if you wanna hear lots of songs I haven’t holler’d in years – Quizmaster, Bandy’s First Jump, No Hard Shoulder to Cry On, Head Hang Low – plus loads of new stuff from the forthcoming CITIZEN CAIN’D album and a bunch of more recent stuff. And remember that Russia is an unstable place and we thankfully don’t live there.

The West is the Best,

JULIAN