Luso Life 012

Nº 012

SPRING ‘22

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Proudly and proactively we work together with labour, management, government and community service associations to promote health and safety in the workplace, while meeting the growing training needs of our various industries.

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Are you a homeowner looking to refinance or renew your mortgage? Thinking about purchasing a new home? Are you a first time home buyer? Are you afraid you won’t qualify for a mortgage? Would you like to take advantage of the current low interest rates? Are you self-employed? Are you behind on your mortgage payment or have bad credit? Do you want learn how to use your home equity to renovate your home or lower your monthly payments?

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PHO T O S

S U B S CRI B E

David McDonald Emma Aylett Isaac Mosna Julia Dantas Isabel Ganhão Manuel DaCosta Noah Ganhão Mike Neal Pip Wolfgang Webster

Luso Life is released four times per year.

To subscribe, visit lusolife.ca/shop Price: $10 CDN l ist e n Listen to a few of the many tunes that helped us through some long days while we were crafting this issue.

Cover James Bailey W ORD S Inês Carpinteiro Julia Dantas David Ganhão Manuel DaCosta Noah Ganhão Mike Neal

Published by MDC Media Group Manuel DaCosta, President.

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Contents 18

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Avó. Neta. Nata.

The walk before the aisle

The pastel de nata will elude us no more ... and it only took us 12 issues to finally find an avó that would satisfy our sweet tooth with this classic dessert.

Wedding prep tips from Julia.

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In the pit

Douro & more

Thirteen years in the pit may sound like some sort of death-row punishment, but to concert photographer David McDonald, it’s the best place to be.

Spending five days walking through the mountains can be a very spiritual experience.

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The punk rock poet He’s known as the Bard of Salford, the People’s Poet and the Doctor. He’s witty, eloquent and super cool. He refers to himself as “Johnny Clarke, the name behind the hairstyle.” He is Dr. John Cooper Clarke and we had the privilege of spending an hour speaking with him... now the privilege is all yours.

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The protest song

# War

Since the beginning of time people have been writing songs demanding change and inspiring people to action.

The fact that all of those songs are still relevant today tells a sad story of the state of humankind.

Social media as the weapon of choice in 21st century warfare.

Ready. Aim. Fire.

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Ten sandos Surprisingly, there was a time when people kept their bread, meats and cheeses apart.

It was a dark era in history and it’s BS [Before Sandwiches]. Evolution is delicious.

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Sweet friends Sharing pizza and conversation with friends after picking up a pizza at SanRemo Bakery is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

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Portrait Mike, meet Drake.

WORDS: David Ganhão

recipe: Fernanda Gilbert

PHOTOS: mike neal

avó fernanda

Avó.

Neta.

Nata.

I

t’s taken 12 issues to get here, but our pages are finally graced with the presence of the mighty pastel de nata—incidentally, a dozen is a nice even amount to make.

The concept behind the “Mesa da Avó” [or avô] article was born from a simple question—a few years ago, during a Christmas dinner, I listened as one of my nieces asked my mother-in-law, “Avó how do you make arroz doce?” We know that a Google search will place all of these recipes at our fingertips, but we figured there was something endearing about photographing real avós in their kitchens, making traditional recipes that have made them famous—within their families. Naturally, issue 001 featured my mother-in-law, Avó Rosa Dantas making her “famous” arroz doce [rice pudding] and since then we’ve had the pleasure of photographing [and tasting] many fantastic dishes made by the hands of many wonderful people, but nobody was able to make a pastel de nata—believe us, we’ve asked.

It turns out the pastel de nata is not something typically made in Portuguese homes. Recipes for the nata aren’t handed down from generation to generation. They leave that dish to the professionals for one simple reason—you need a very, very hot oven. Commercial ovens in bakeries blast out 425ºC [800ºF] of heat, whereas at home, we have to settle for 260ºC [500ºF] if we’re lucky.

Enter Avó Fernanda. Although she had never made natas, she loves baking, is very good at it, and most importantly, isn’t afraid to try new things. A week before the shoot, Fernanda went to work with her mother and daughters trying various recipes. Making small batches, they tweaked the ingredients and experimented with different heat and bake times trying to achieve the perfect homemade nata.

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If you haven’t tried a pastel de nata, I’m sorry. My suggestion is that you stop reading and run to find one now… Get going, I’ll wait while you indulge in two bites of creamy, sweet, custard encased in a crispy, flaky pastry shell. Let me know when your taste-buds come back to earth. Now do you know why this is the quintessential Portuguese dessert?

So finding a nata recipe online may be easy, but finding the original recipe is impossible. That secret has been closely guarded by the family who owns Pastéis de Belém—a pastry shop in Lisbon that purchased the recipe from the monks of Jerónimos Monastery. Go ahead, have another nata and I’ll tell you the story.

The exact year of when they were invented, and exact origins are a bit murky [the English were making egg tarts in the 12th century and before them, the French were messing around with custards], but the monks definitely perfected the dessert.

According to legend, the monks, who originally discovered delectable pastries when they were based in France, had a bit of an egg yolk problem. At that time, laundry detergents hadn’t been invented, so the monks and nuns of the monastery used egg whites to starch their clothes—this left them with a surplus of egg whites. Not wanting to be wasteful, the monks started baking egg-based sweets and at some point in the 13th century, they landed on a winner and pastel de nata was born.

They quietly churned these out [probably only sharing with friends] until Portugal’s Liberal Revolution of 1820. Sensing the impending closure of monasteries, the monks looked for ways to sustain themselves and started selling the pastries to a neighbouring sugar refinery. When the monasteries were finally closed in 1834, the secret recipe was sold to the owners of the sugar refinery and three years later, they opened the Fábrica de Pastéis de Belém to produce the pastéis de Belém [that’s how they branded their natas]. The pastry shop is still open to this day and is operated by decedents of the original family, using the same recipe to churn out over 22,000 natas each day [I’m good for five or six].

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What’s in a name? Singular is pastel de nata. If you’re making (or ordering) two or more, it’s pastéis (not pastels) It’s also acceptable to simply say nata[s].

Now serving. Natas are best enjoyed warm with a dusting of cinnamon and an espresso on the side.

Wedding material. An old Portuguese proverb goes, “A bride who eats a pastel will never take off her ring.” Sure it may sound hokey, but do you want to risk it? The cost of a couple of natas is cheaper than a divorce!

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Avó Fernanda’s kitchen produces a significantly lower number but since she’s only been at it for a week, we’ll give her some time to get her count up.

When we showed up for the shoot, bright and early on a Sunday morning, Fernanda greeted us at the door with her assistant—neta [granddaughter in Portuguese] Selena. Seated at the counter in her highchair, two-year-old Selena helped avó stir the ingredients, then she took a short break to play with a lemon before ‘getting back to work,’ kneading the dough [although I’m pretty sure she was just playing with the dough, but I can’t confirm]. Fernanda told us how the homemade natas wouldn’t have the same blistered, caramelized top as the ones made in commercial ovens, but they tasted just as good.

In another kitchen, a few blocks away the experimentation continued. Fernanda’s sister Rosa Bandeira [“It’s a pot. It’s a meal. It’s a Cataplana” story from issue 007] was experimenting with a recipe of her own, using an air fryer to bake her pastéis de nata—the photo she sent me looked fantastic but until she offers up a sample, I can only take her word for it [nudge, nudge].

After the natas had baked and cooled, Selena volunteered for her final duty before nap time—official nata taste-tester, and although she didn’t comment, her grin said it all. “MMMMM!”

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makes 12

Pastéis de nata 250 ml whole milk

sugar syrup

150 g sugar

In a saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil.

75 ml water

Let it boil until it reaches the pearl stage—approximately three minutes for it to reach 110°C [ 230°F]. If you don’t have a thermometer, dip a spoon into your syrup and lift it, a large drop should form, which will leave a short thin thread as it falls.

To avoid crystallization [we don’t want that], do not stir the sugar solution.

30 g unleavened flour 4 egg yolks 1 cinnamon stick 3 strips of lemon peel

milk cream

300 g of puff pastry

In a bowl whisk the flour with 50 ml of cold milk until smooth.

In another pan bring the milk, cinnamon stick and the lemon peel to a boil.

Add the flour mixture and stir until it thickens. nata filling Add the sugar syrup to the milk cream, stirring constantly with a wire whisk to avoid forming lumps. Let the mixture cool.

Add the egg yolks and stir well to incorporate the egg yolks in the cream.

Remove the cinnamon stick and lemon peel. put it together Preheat your oven to 260°C [ 500°F]. 1 Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle, sprinkle it with a little water and roll it into a log.

Cut into 2 cm thick slices [if you’re using classic tins, cut the dough 2.5-3cm].

Place one piece pastry dough, cut side down into each greased tin. 2 Place a small cup of water on the side to dip your thumbs in. Use your damp thumb, to flatten the dough against the bottom of the cup, then shape it up the sides.

Fill each cup 3/4 full with the cool custard.

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oven temperature: if your oven doesn’t reach 260ºc, don’t worry, just put it to maximum heat, and if it can do hotter, go for it! if you have a convection oven, this is the recipe to use that setting!

2

tins: pastel de nata tins work best but any tart mould or even a muffin tin will work. since we’re working with lower heat than bakeries, we recommend using smaller tins.

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Bake the natas until the edges of the dough start to brown, about 10 minutes for the mini-tins, 15 to 17 minutes for the classic tins.

Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes before removing from tins.

Best eaten warm [not hot] with a dusting of cinnamon, but of course, that’s entirely up to you!

WORDS & photos: julia dantas

The walk before the aisle

ten wedding prep tips

Whether you’ve been planning your wedding since you were a little kid or you just started yesterday, it can be an overwhelming process. It can be easy to get lost in the chaos of it all. Planning your wedding shouldn’t have to feel like a second job. You should be able to enjoy it—after all, isn’t your wedding supposed to be one of the best days of your life?

After being in the bridal beauty industry for over seven years I’ve seen the stress wedding planning can cause and I’ve gotten first-hand tips from wedding planners, brides and bridal parties on how to prep like a pro for your wedding. I’ve put together the top 10 tips I have learned over the years on how to keep stress levels down and the excitement up when planning for your big day!

Setting a budget - This is something I think people often forget about in the excitement of the engagement. Of course, your wedding is not something you want to cheap out on but also something you might not want to blow your life savings on. Setting a budget, or even a range of what you and your partner are comfortable with spending can make the rest of the planning process go smoother and help avoid overspending in the moment. It’s important to find areas to save money on and areas to splurge. For example, one of my past brides ended up saving thousands of dollars by getting stunning, very realistic fake flowers for her centrepieces. And was able to spend more on her dress. It’s all a bit of a give and take.

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Finding a venue - So you got the ring but where are you going to say I do?

When looking for a venue there are lots of things to consider, do you want it indoor or outdoor? Destination or local? The list goes on and on but really I think the most important thing to look for when finding a venue is does the space speak to you? When you walked in did you get giddy and excited or did you just feel neutral? Is it blowing you away or just convenient? Just like when you were picking your partner to spend the rest of your life with, if the venue doesn’t give you butterflies it’s not the one sis.

Booking your beauty team - A lot of people wait to book their beauty team for their big day because they don’t feel a sense of urgency but when you wait until the last minute and your top choice is booked out up, you’re going to have regrets about not doing this sooner. Finding a beauty team whose work not only catches your eye but is also the style you are going for is extremely important. If you are looking for more of a natural and soft look you probably don’t want to be looking at artists who specialize in full glam and vice versa.

Booking Trials - I get asked about trials all the time, do I really need them, is it worth it? The answer is YES!! As someone who has been in the bridal beauty industry for years, I can honestly say trials are worth it and every bride should book one. The look you have been eyeing on Instagram might look completely different on your face or hair. Better to figure this out when you have time to adjust before the big day to ensure you are happy when it counts.

There is nothing worse than being unhappy with the way your hair or makeup turned out on the day of your wedding and not having time to fix it. A trial will help you avoid any disappointment and ensure you have left a blushing bride on the big day.

Figuring out the vibe - What do you want the overall look and feel of your wedding to be? Are you a garden chic bride, clean and classic or bold and 30

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edgy? Whatever your style and vibe are it’s always best to figure this out early so you can plan your decor, dress, colours and even invitations to match.

If you’re struggling to figure out what you want this to be Pinterest is a great place to start, you can search different wedding vibes and see what speaks to you and even get inspiration for your own wedding.

Make sure all your vendors are booked - This one probably doesn’t come as a big surprise but it’s too important to not talk about. Vendors are anyone that you pay for products or services for your wedding. This can range from invitations, catering, photographer/ videographer to attire (dress, tux and shoes), music, transportation and pretty much anything else you think you will need to make your wedding come together. Sometimes need to be booked or purchased months in advance and some can be left until the last minute. My suggestion is to make a list of all your vendors and when each one needs to be booked by to ensure there is no last-minute scramble to lock something in.

Booking accommodations - The day before the wedding is traditionally spent apart from your partner. Now you don’t have to do this of course but if you are where are you going to be staying? Some brides like to stay with their parents or with a friend but I also know a ton of brides who like to get a hotel room with the bridal party and have everyone in one place. This helps make it easier the morning of, there is less risk of someone showing up late and missing their glam sesh because they are already there! Now if this is something you want to do it’s important to book a hotel in advance and get a headcount so everyone has a bed to sleep in and can be well-rested. Something else to consider is if you have a lot of people from out of town coming or if the location will require your guests to need a place to stay contacting a hotel directly and get a group rate for your wedding! Your guests will appreciate it and it will ensure everyone attending has a convenient place to stay.

The Dress - Finding your wedding dress can be one of the most fun parts of planning your wedding. Getting to try on all the beautiful gowns and pick your favourite one surrounded by your loved ones. But did you know that most bridal boutiques recommend buying your dress 8-12 months and bridesmaids dress 6-8 before to give time for it to be ordered and any alterations you might need to make? Now this timeline is if you are interested in ordering dresses, if you are interested in something off the rack or maybe thrift it’s still best to get it 5 months before in case you need to make any changes or get alterations done! It’s always best to give yourself extra time, it might take you a few shops to find your perfect dress and more time is always better and helps reduce any unnecessary stress.

Self-care - Self-care is important to prioritize no matter what but if you are about to get married you might want to kick things up a notch. Things like facials and treatments should be started 4 months before the wedding, it can take about 3 months to see noticeable results and find the right routine for you. If you are thinking about a change to your hair you also want to make sure there is time in between your appointment in case you don’t like how it turns out there is still time to get it fixed.

Things like your nails and eyebrow shaping can be done the week of but be mindful if you have sensitive skin and give yourself some time for any redness to subside. Don’t forget your other selfcare practises, drinking lots of water (your makeup artist will love you for this), exercise, mindful thinking and maintaining a good headspace are all super important to keep practising.

Enjoying your wedding - Not everything is going to be 100% perfect but it’s important to enjoy the process.

Weddings are a celebration of love between two people, so remember to take a deep breath and have fun after all this day is all about celebrating you and your partner! @juliadantasbeauty

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~ from afar.

Pinhao

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WORDS & PHOTOS: MANUEL DACOSTA

DOURO MORE FIVE DAYS IN THE MOUNTAINS

Tired feet.

Shoes had failed.

As we progress through life, the need to connect and experience new things becomes part of who we are as human beings. Understanding the earth we live in with its complexities enhances a need to fulfill our lives. Earth provides all we need and demands to be respected so that all can experience what it has to offer. Man has done its best to challenge earth’s existence by imposing destructive forces which may impact its majestic reality as we know it. Fortunately, there are still places that provide opportunities to contemplate earth’s greatness. Life has smiled on me by providing the opportunity to seek places which have filled the voids of my existence on this planet.

The Douro Valley and the mountain ranges of northern Portugal such as Peneda-Gerês and Serra De Agra provided the atonement needed to appreciate the reality and majesty of the earth we live in. Such experience was embraced by me on a solo trip trekking five days through enchanted valleys, meandering rivers, imposing trees, and rugged paths which were surrounded by the green of nature with all its challenges to produce the intended fruits within a landscape comprised of beauty and magic.

The fruit of the Gods.

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Peneda-Gerês ~ Resident.

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This trek was not to describe the beauty and challenges of the places visited, because it was a trip of self-discovery meshed into a spiritual cleansing within God’s earth.

Reflecting on each day and the experiences and challenges from the unique cultural landscapes, provides an expansion of our soul and a new level of respect for the soil beneath our feet.

When Portugal was founded in the 12th century, it was in northern Portugal that it became a people and a nation. The north provides a mirror to near perfection by combining sea, rivers, mountains, and the beauty of the people who live there. This trip began in Porto, a city whose history is part of the fabric of Portugal. With its tiled walls, museums, historic churches, and gastronomy, it provides a perfect point of departure up the Douro River valley towards the Spanish border. Take the train, boat or car and lose yourselves in the suffocating beauty of valleys and vineyards confronting you at every corner. From Porto the destination was Pinhão.

Next day traveled to Alijo where the personal discovery began and started a walking voyage to Pinhão. About 20kms through mountains and vineyards, internalizing the hardships of those who cultivate the vines for our enjoyment. 40°C temperatures made the trek arduous but exhilarating. Finally, back in Pinhão with tired feet and realizing that challenging the hardships is self-illumination of our spirits and courage.

Granaries of Lindoso.

Town of Lindoso.

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Residents of Serra de Arga.

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Exterior Art Gallery in Serra de Arga

Next day traveled to Ervadosa do Douro, where after an invigorating consumption of espresso coffee, a 10km trek through rugged mountains began. The ascent of the valley was challenging and often the feet grumbled because of the blistering heat. A wonderful picnic at Quinta das Tecedeiras overlooking the Douro River followed, providing flavours of the region from products hand-picked that same day. A 30-minute rebelo boat ride down the Douro River took me back to Pinhão awaiting the next adventure, which took me to Ponte de Lima and Hotel Paço do Vitorino. To appreci-

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ate Ponte de Lima, a visit is required to embrace its medieval architecture, culture and traditions. Next day I traveled to Lindoso (Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês) for a walking tour of Yellow Mountain (16km). Definitely the toughest trek through rugged mountain sides appreciating the ever changing beauty provided by Flora and Fauna. Unforgettable experience on the wild side of nature surrounded by small historic towns which contribute to the history of Portugal. Ended at Lindoso with its historic castle and its magical granaries, which deserve exploration on their own. Back to Ponte

de Lima to prepare for the next adventure on Serra de Arga, a trek of 14km.

This was a highlight of the trip as it exposed me to cultural visuals near the area I was born but totally unbeknownst to me. The visual fulfillment ended with a traditional unforgettable lunch made with regional ingredients washed well with champarião.

My spirit was realized and complete.

The tiredness of my feet was balanced with the lungs full of fresh air and smells of every place visited. Will return.

Stages of suffering.

top of Serra de Arga.

Finally - The meal.

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I T P 40

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interview: noah ganhão

PHOTOS: David mcdonald

N H E I T

intro: David Ganhão

I T P

E

veryone who attends a concert spends a portion of the show watching it through their phone, rather than enjoying the experience—we’re all guilty, even if it’s only a few minutes. Most of us are simply looking to capture a personal memento to take home (and likely never look at again), but there are people out there whose sole purpose at a concert is to capture those mementos for us.

david mcdonald

The history of rock and roll has been documented since day one. We have all seen many of the iconic photos in magazines, on album covers or printed on t-shirts but most of us are unaware who actually clicked the shutter to freeze that moment in time for us to enjoy—Johnny Cash sending a message to the warden at San Quentin State Prison via his middle finger [Jim Marshall, 1969]; Iggy walking on fans in Cincinnati [Tom Copi, 1970]; Bowie going down on Mick Ronson’s guitar [Mick Rock, 1972]—memories of concerts we never attended but we can identify in a second.

David McDonald has been taking pics for a very long time and he comes by it naturally—his father loved photography and took slides of the family on special occasions. Although he loved the images and memories on those slides, he swore he’d never make his family wait for an hour to open Christmas presents just so he could get the right shot. Setting up lights, fiddling with the camera and posing wasn’t his bag—if he ever got into photography, he didn’t want it to be invasive. There would be no delayed events because of him.

In college David studied advertising and business, where imaging and graphics courses were part of the curriculum. He really enjoyed manipulating images, and combined with dad’s slides, the bug was set. When his first daughter was born, David wanted to capture her spark, her smiles and the stages of her growth. He bought a film camera and started to learn.

Having played in bands since the age of 15, the camera made its way into that world as well. He started experimenting with his bands, and with other bands at concerts in bars [when cameras were allowed… naturally]. After taking some pretty amazing shots during a family vacation to Australia, he asked his [now ex] wife for a DSLR for his birthday, and to his surprise, she bought it! He used that camera everywhere [practice makes perfect kids], and after showing those pics to some decision makers at the radio station where his wife worked, he got access to shoot their shows. Those shots got him a gig shooting for an entertainment blog. It’s been 13 years since his hobby turned professional, and in any other context, spending 13 years in the pit would be a bad thing, but not for David.

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Typically, most photographers only have three songs at the beginning of the set… do you find there are a lot of missed opportunities Absolutely, not to mention that some bands schedule bad lighting for the first couple of songs so that their photographer can deliver the best imagery. Then, so many things happen throughout a show after the first three songs that would be interesting to capture. There are countless changes to what happens onstage including different lighting, some sets morph and evolve throughout the show, sometimes there are guest artists, costume changes, tickets holders invited to the stage to sing or perform to name a few. As a musician I also like to capture the different instruments used and that can’t happen when limited to the first three songs.

Pre being privy to media passes, did you ever sneak your camera into a show? Assuming the answer is yes—who was playing and how did you sneak it in?

I sure did. Growing up in Windsor I went to a lot of concerts in Detroit. I think that the first concert I snuck a camera into was the first show ever at what was then the new Joe Louis Arena—a Rush / Max Webster double bill. I had a camera body and a couple of lenses separated between myself, my girlfriend and another friend. We wore baggy clothes and stuffed them down our pants or strapped them to our bodies, under our clothes with one of my father’s ties. It worked and we got everything into the venue. Too bad our seats were the furthest from the stage and without really understanding what I was doing, I didn’t have the appropriate zoom lens so I got a lot of useless shots. But hey, it was a learning experience.

With the invention of decent recording Walkmans I discovered that it was far easier to sneak that and a microphone into a show, so after a couple of experiences with the camera, I changed to recording audio.

I ask because the majority of my concert photography experience has been under the table—some lens in the pants action with the DSLR in bag. 100% success rate—just saying…

Exactly what we did and I’m sure a ton of other fans have done. Smart phones have certainly changed that where anyone can now record high def audio and video.

When you’ve taken the time to go through legal channels in order to shoot a show, what are your thoughts on the person who’s sneaking in equipment to shoot.

Having done it myself I say kudos to them, but it’s a lot harder now with metal detectors, pat downs and more because of increased security.

Fans want something special and relatable to their own experience. They just need to understand that if they’re caught they risk being shown the door. If they’re OK with that then game on. I think bands forget that fans want something special and they try to soak money out of them for that special something. Not everyone can afford a $750 USD signed, limited edition, vinyl album, like what Tool is selling on their current tour. Sneaking in a camera gains that fan something rare, elusive and exclusive.

In today’s age, everyone is armed with a high quality camera on their iPhone, they can take 200 photos and one is bound to be good. How has this affected the professional photographer? How will it affect the future of concert photography?

It certainly makes it easier to get a great image because rather than waiting for your moment to grab something on a 36 frame roll of film, you can

let the clicks fly and then just select the best of the best. That alone has raised the quality of images that you see because rather than choosing the best of 36 or 72 frames, you can choose from literally hundreds or even thousands if you’re shooting the entire show. That alone has made it easier for people without experience to produce decent images. That however doesn’t mean that they understand how to best use their device or how to best frame an image, they’re pointing and clicking and hoping for the best. It’s made the point of entry easier for anyone if they can obtain access. But photographers with experience are still able to stand out because of their ability to “get the shot” and then edit them to make them visually appealing. This new technology may inspire more people because now it’s in their very hands.

Does the world now have more great photographers, or has Instagram lowered everyone’s standards to the point that every pic gets a “like”.

I think great photographers will always stand out. Cell phones and digital DSLRs have flooded the market and there are images everywhere.

People are used to seeing images of everything, almost everywhere and anyone with a good smart phone can now call themselves a photographer. But great work stands out, and that takes experience across multiple disciplines including obtaining access, knowing how to manoeuvre in the pit, how to frame an image and how to edit and “finish” that image. It will take an instagrammer time to develop those skills and it doesn’t happen quickly. So professional work is instantly recognizable.

Being in the pit, how much luck is involved in getting the perfect shot.

For example, Pennie Smith’s photo for the cover of London Calling when she accidentally pushed the trigger of her camera backing away from Paul Simonon’s swinging bass. The photo is out of focus, she hated it and today it’s considered one of the most iconic images in music history.

I love that shot! There’s luck in anything that you do in a live concert setting. You have to develop an ability to both focus on what you’re shooting as well as be able to scan the stage for what’s interesting or lit best. You could be focusing on the lead guitar player soloing but the singer reaches out into the audience to interact with fans and shake some hands. There’s going to be a solo in almost every song, but the singer may do that just once. And if you don’t notice it, it’s a missed opportunity. You may love the shot of the solo but still kick yourself for missing the singer leaning over the audience with all of those hands in the air. I think every concert photographer is a little jealous of shots from the other photogs in the same pit because we’ll always see something that they’ve captured that we wish we’d caught too.

In the pit, all the photographers are standing in the same area, looking at the stage from the same angle—how hard is it to compete with the others and make your photos stand out?

That’s not necessarily true, most of the time the pit crosses the entire length of the stage so there is often a fair amount of room to catch everyone on stage and change your angles, it’s rare that we’re marshalled into a small space. There’s also an in-pit etiquette that seasoned photographers understand. You give way, you’re polite to each other by gesturing, touching their shoulder and making them aware if you’re going to step around them. You never step in front of someone taking a shot or shove your camera in front of another one. Newbies need to learn that but I find that most of the people with pit access know each other, are friendly and respect each other’s space and shooting space.

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We’re living in an age where digital technology is perfected and film photography is very much in vogue this makes it an exciting time to be a photographer I certainly agree. I generally don’t get into the film vs. digital argument where some people only swear by one format. I don’t find it much different than the vinyl vs. CD argument. It all comes down to personal choice and which platform you like to use to get the results that you want. They both have their advantages and disadvantages.

What first sparked your interest in photography?

I was trying to get something rare from an event that I attended, something that nobody else would have. Something that I could potentially trade to another fan to increase my stable of rarities. Yeah, I started off as a music collector and it built from there, morphing through various phases to where I am now.

Do you think there’s anything “overrated” with the photography industry today?

Not really, no. Although I think that with the quality of the technology available, too many people are calling themselves a “photographer” simply because they’ve invested in good gear or because their smart phone can shoot in the RAW format. I think a lot of their claims about their abilities or their professionalism is overrated, not necessarily the industry itself.

Are there bands that you like shooting over others?

I tend to categorize the bands that I shoot. The categories consist of bands of which I’m a fan, bands that are visually interesting to shoot, my bucket list of bands that I want to shoot but haven’t yet, bands that I’m told to shoot by someone else and then those that I know personally. And some bands can fit into more than one category. For some clarity, I’ve never shot U2 but I’ve loved them for years and would kill to be able to shoot them. There’s a band that I work with a lot called The Lazys, they’ve become some of my closest friends so I’ll jump through hoops for them.

There are a number of metal or hard core bands where I’ve never put on a CD to listen to their music but their shows are so visually interesting that the shots produced end up being stunning. Honestly, any shoot is a great opportunity but the ones that I love the most are with the bands with which I have a personal connection or relationship.

How do you feel about people posting your photos without permission or credit?

I don’t mind reposts or sharing because it’s still referencing my work.

Outside of that, theft hasn’t happened a lot but that’s the reason that I use a watermark. There’s an image I took of Zack Wylde from Ozzy’s band with his own band, Black Label Society, that was ripped off and turned into posters that have been sold out of both China and Thailand.

I can’t do much about that other than learn from it and claim it as my own wherever I can so that I then become associated with it. I’m different from some of the other photographers that charge for any use. If I’m approached by a band that wants to use an image I generally tell them that they’re welcome to use it in their social media or on their website at no charge in return for a photo credit. However, if they’re ever going to use it for something that generates revenue like on merchandise, on a CD or vinyl, for press or PR, for advertising or marketing, in an EPK, etc.

then we’d have to come to a more formalized arrangement and they’ve all been very respectful of that approach. I’ve gotten so much more work from doing that because they’re promoting me to their fan base, their management and their record labels. That all helps with raising my profile and generating new work. The only thing that I think would really bother me would be if someone claimed that my imagery was their own and that hasn’t happened yet.

When you started out, how much did you know about photography?

Not much. I haven’t taken any courses other than with some of the editing software. With my first good camera I started taking everything on the “automatic” setting where the camera made all of the decisions for me. As I saw that my images weren’t up to par with those taken by others at the same event I started asking around as to how they operated and if they had any advice. Most of them told me to get out of automatic and learn about shutter speed, aperture and ISO. Some were very helpful and gave me their favourite settings, others well, not so much. I kept at it, learning how to avoid blur, how to vary depth of field and how to avoid grain. It was trial and error and lots and lots of shooting.

Usually, concert photographers represent media. Over the years have you built relationships with artists? Do any of them request you personally?

Yes and “it depends”. Having a family and a day job make it hard for me to travel or go on tour. I’ve had to turn down some very cool opportunities but I’m lucky in that I get to make up for it with the volume of local opportunities I receive here in Toronto. I now have very good relationships with a lot of Canadian bands or their management and do get called regularly when they’re in town. Or, if a promoter hasn’t provided access, a quick call to the management company or PR agency can obtain access via that complementary channel. Unfortunately, I don’t have my own studio so I don’t do a lot of the promotional work, that’s an area I’d like to build upon. Thankfully the work I’m offered does keep me pretty busy. I also find that working with other people around the music and film industries helps generate work. For example, I work a lot with a video director who hires me to do stills on his video sets and that leads to more work from the bands or the studios where we’ve been shooting. I find that outside of the media outlet work it’s those personal relationships and referrals that really help expand the scope of work, it pays to play nice with other people.

Backstage/behind the scenes cameos are always fun to look at… I’m sure there is a trust issue for anyone holding a camera in these scenarios. Is this something you’ve had the opportunity to shoot?

Yes, particularly with the bands where there’s a personal relationship. In a lot of cases it’s a very different vibe than what happens on stage. You have to be careful before a performance with some bands because they’re involved in their personal routines prepping for the show so you tend to stay out of their way, not invade their space and shoot from a distance. Unless they’re seeing fans that have won access or bought a VIP package and are interacting at a meet and greet. After the show tends to be more fun and less intense as the show is over, they’re a little spent from performing and are far more open to interacting and having some fun. That said every band is different and has their own routines but it’s always interesting and often unpredictable as to how the after show could go. But to answer what I think is at the core of your question…. Yes, there are images that I’ve taken that will never see the light of day, they’re reserved exclusively for the band’s own use.

You’ve photographed thousands of shows. Are there any that stand out?

I grew up as a Rush superfan. I had every album, collected the rare stuff and more. The first time I got to shoot them in 2013 was like winning the lottery, I had to try and stay professional while not geeking out and looking like a fanboy, I’m pretty sure I pulled that off. I had some goth leaning tendencies when I was younger so I was always into the Bauhaus and their singer Peter Murphy. Peter has one of the most amazing solo albums titled Cascade, it’s incredibly lush and atmospheric, nothing like Bauhaus but I loved both. I shot a show in Hamilton in 2010 that featured him with his solo band, Squeeze, Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip with his side project and Coney Hatch. It was my first time shooting a massive show and I was wowed by the experience…. “You mean I get to wander around backstage, talk to the bands that are going to hit the stage, take photos of some of my favourite bands and hang in the photo pit in the best location in the house?” At that point it was mind blowing.

Is there an artist that you would love to shoot?

I have a bucket list. I was able to scratch one name off of it in 2019 when I shot Tool. The others still on it include Nick Cave, U2, The Cure, AC/DC, Paul Westerberg with or without The Replacements, The Sisters of Mercy [there goes the goth leanings again], Rage Against The Machine, The Stray Cats and The Dead Weather [ft. Jack White and Alison Mosshart of The Kills]. Those are all big-name, hard to get access to shoot bands or they tour relatively rarely. If I had to suggest something more current I’d have to say Blackberry Smoke or Goodbye June, they’re quite interesting to me right now. The reason there aren’t a lot of more recent bands on the list is because I’ve likely already shot them as obtaining access or accreditation is easier.

Thoughts on artists making photographers sign rights-grab contracts before concert shoots I think it’s often selfish and too one-sided. I understand why they’re asking though… Too many bands have had their images or music stolen, used and abused, or used out of context, often to line someone else’s pockets.

I get that most of them are just trying to protect their own brands. However, to others, it’s just a cash grab—demanding to own your copyright and artistic interpretation, and obtaining experienced work at no charge.

I’m happy to sign one if the media outlet I’m shooting for wants the images, but only if I don’t have to give up copyright, if that’s a condition I won’t sign that release. If they’re simply asking for approval for what’s going to be posted I’m OK with that because they usually just want to ensure that positive images are released. However, if they’re asking me to take my time, use my experience and hand over everything so that they can own it and do with it as they please, I’ll run in the other direction because those are patently abusive practices akin to stealing from the photographer.

That said, if they want to own everything and they’re paying me through the nose or I’m getting a royalty on every use or sale then that’s something I might consider, if and only if I retain the right to use selected images in a gallery or exhibition. @davidmcdphotos LUSO LIFE

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PEOPLE ARE USED TO SEEING IMAGES OF EVER WITH A GOOD SMART PHONE CAN NOW CALL WORK STANDS OUT, AND THAT TAKES EXPERIEN

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RYTHING, ALMOST EVERYWHERE AND ANYONE THEMSELVES A PHOTOGRAPHER. BUT GREAT NCE ACROSS MULTIPLE DISCIPLINES...

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INTERVIEW & illustrations: David Ganhão

PHOTOS: Emma Aylett, Pip. Wolfgang Webster

Dr. john cooper clarke

THE PUNK ROCK POET

re ike a L . d n e bitter e h t e u’r ning, yo r o m e h nt ht Club i g i N a e k i L A couple of years ago, I was at a team-building workshop and the “ice breaker” question was “Who would you love to have dinner with?” I was up first, and blurted out, “Dr. John Cooper Clarke.” [When I told John, his very quick response was, “Well that’s funny because I was having dinner with somebody the other day and they said, ‘Who would you like to break ice with?’ And I said David Ganhão.”] As the room tried to process why I wanted to break bread with a doctor, our music director started a slow clap and shouted, “yessss!” from the back of the room.

If you’re reading this and are also trying to figure out who exactly is this good doctor I speak of, you fall into a category of people which I like to call, “I’ve never heard of ‘em.” The rest of us fall into a second, smaller but ultimately more in-tune group that we’ll call, “I am aware that John Cooper Clarke is a genius.”

Simply put, he’s the punk-rock poet.

If you’re keeping score, this is JCC’s second appearance in Luso Life— you may recognize his mug from the collage designed for the “Someone who is cool” article (issue 008)… he’s right there on the left surrounded

by Johnny Cash, Deborah Harry and the Chuck Berry—Great company.

So, pour yourself a dirty martini, and enjoy the interview. [Note: reading in your best working-class Mancunian drawl will enhance the experience!]

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My introduction to you was via Toronto’s alternative station CFNY where your song “Beasley Street” was on heavy rotation alongside other greats like Jim Carrol, XTC, Bowie… and the Raincoats—a band you shared the stage with. I interviewed Ana daSilva last year—she’s wonderful.. in fact she helped me get in touch with you…

Oh, wow that’s nice. Well, that would’ve been late 70s, early 80s.

The one I remember particularly was Alexandra Palace. With the Pop Group and the Slits. You know the whole day of it there—a week later the place burned down. It’s up and running again now.

Not your fire...

No, no, no... a week went by. I was nowhere near the place when that happened. That’s what I always say when people ask me, “Where were you when John Kennedy got assassinated?” I was nowhere near the place! You’re not pinning that one on me! Find by yourself another fall guy [laughs].

You were born in 1949—four years after my mom. Her path to a better life was immigrating to Canada at the age of 20 to work whatever job she could find, in order to make money—the extent of her rebelliousness was listening to “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones on AM radio while at work. You, it seems, decided to not worry about money, and to become a professional poet. What do you think triggers someone to follow their dream even though that dream may seem unattainable? How did you not get discouraged?

Wow, I’m younger than somebody! That’s the best news I’ve had all week.

Well, let me hold you up there, David. The rest of it is right, but the not caring about making money bit, you couldn’t be more wrong. The pressure was on me to get money—constantly—but being a professional poet wasn’t immediately seen as, you know, a good way to go about getting money. So, it did seem a bit foolhardy to the casual onlooker. I thought, I’m good at this poetry business so unlike all of my other get rich quick schemes, “this one’s gonna get me rich, and quick [laughs]!”

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t jus s i our germ ace s are splattered about, Your f So, in your head you figured, “I will be paid big dollars going into it”.

That was the intention. I was looking backwards at that time and if you look at it, there’s always been a place for the monologuist. On any music hall billing at the turn of the century, the world that gave us, Charlie Chaplin—the first world-recognizable superstar, came the likes of Gower Champion, Sir George Robey. Later on in the world of variety, show-business really—it was our version of Broadway—you would have the remnants of the music hall world operating in the world of variety, which then, when TV came along, we had a ready made sort of show business, right there in the late 40s—people like Max Miller would be the most notorious really. These people were known for their risqué monologues, and give it another name—poetry.

Later on, the one that the American and Canadian public would be most familiar with, would be Stanley Holloway, who starred in many movies like, My Fair Lady. Stanley Holloway would do things like “The Lion And Albert”, “Brahn Boots” and “Old Sam [Sam, Pick Oop Tha’ Musket]”.

These were the people that gave me the idea that, if your poetry was popular enough, there was no reason why you couldn’t make your mark in show business with this. So that was my idea. From a very early age I figured that’s what I would do and I’ve been proven right really, there is always a place for poetry in the entertainment business—there’s always somebody at it. Later on from America you had people like Phil Harris.

He was a massive influence on me—do you know, his work? He was the voice of Baloo in the mid 60s cartoon version of Jungle Book. He did “I Wanna Be Like You”, that was a duet between Phil and Louis Prima.

I love Louis Prima as well. I’ve got all his records—love the ones he did with Keely Smith, his lovely wife. She was a beautiful girl; lovely voice. So getting back to it, the only way I could figure to make megabucks was to step out of the world that was prepared for me, which was, you know, getting a job in a factory.

You apprenticed as a printer.

Yes I was a compositor—I moved very quickly. I got the whole apprenticeship in six years. I got what they called a City and Guilds certificate,

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response to something that happened to me personally. I think if you’re a poet, what’s second nature, in order to get an angle, is you have to be an adopter of positions.

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Which brings us to “Twat”. The way you unleash line after line of hysterical anger towards this person, it has to be written about someone specific.

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Yeah, well, everybody’s got a target for that one. In fact, I always introduce it like this when I’m on stage, “everybody wants to murder somebody...” It’s a well known fact—the person might change on a daily or even hourly basis but at all times, every adult in the world wants to murder somebody, and that’s where I come in with that poem, as a shaman. Handover your homicidal impulses to me and I will deal with them through the medium of poetry. It’s a very popular poem.

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So, I guess you believe it’s possible for a John Cooper Clarke to emerge and have your level of success in today’s landscape?

For most people in show business that would be a bad sign [laughs]!

All poetry is rhythmic but your delivery has an edge—the energy of Chuck Berry or a Ramones song—and it’s infectious… The only thing missing is Dee Dee counting off the tempo for your poems, “12-3-4. Like a nightclub in the morning, you’re the bitter end…”

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which means you’ve passed with flying colours and you’re a fully fledged compositor, working on side the graphic designer... and then the whole thing got computerized two years later, so what a waste [laughs]. That was the only time I ever did as I was advised by my parents–to get a trade, so I got this trade which became immediately obsolete. Since then, I’ve not taken any advice. An early lesson - ignore all advice. In those early days of independent television I thought, there’s a place for me there. In the same way that gifted painters entered the world and became commercial artists, I thought that maybe there was a literary equivalent of this—you know, writing jingles.

You’re the only entertainer who doesn’t get upset when fans scream “TWAT” at you during a performance.

I love the comparison because actually, the Ramones are very lyric conscious, aren’t they? They’re one of the most literate bands around. They really do tell a story as quickly, rhythmically and as enjoyably as possible.

I’ve just been listening to the Beach Boys—they’re interchangeable.

They are. Even their themes.

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Well, you know that, they’re true life stories, but they didn’t actually happen to me, to be honest. You know, very little of my stuff is actually a direct

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Some of your poems come from true life stories—“Kung Fu International”, “36 Hours”… do they all come from there, or are some simply works of fiction?

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It’s hiding in plain sight is what I’m saying. It’s the one that everybody’s givin’ a go. They use that word a lot, ‘accessible.’ It couldn’t be more accessible. What, do you want me to write it for you? Yeah, I’ll do that. That’s what I do [laughs].

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Right. We have all tried to write a few lines.

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I think everybody’s tried to write a poem, not tried, everybody’s written a poem. Unlike painting a picture, learning an instrument or getting dancing lessons, it’s the one thing—it comes along with language itself, the appreciation of poetry. Every year brings along the set pieces where a poem might be required—your mother or father’s birthday, Valentine’s Day—Hallmark Cards ain’t going out of business any day now.

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Yeah, but via another route. I think it already has, hasn’t it—the world of rap. I mean if rap isn’t poetry what is? So it’s always around and it always has been. Songs like “Deck of Cards”, remember that one? It was a big hit for a guy called Wink Martindale. The story is about a G.I. who’s in a military chapel and he’s sort of messing around with a deck of cards and a sergeant sort of pulled him up about it, “You better have a good story soldier, taking out a deck of cards now in the house like God.” Check it out. It’s a real ingenious piece of work. I can’t go into it, it’d take too long, but it’s a really significant story.

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Absolutely the same themes—growing up; being a kid; not being old enough to do what you want; to everything getting in the way of you innocently having a good time [laughs]. All the preoccupations of a young person.

The Ramones were huge for me. I got to see them at Lollapalooza right before they retired in 96.

Yeah. They burned brightly for not very long. I loved everything they did, you know, I must have seen them 78 times and every time they were on for less! They used to say, “We’re getting better. Last year we did 45 minutes, this year, it’s over in half an hour! We’re getting better all the time [laughs]!” So really, that’s been my ammo ever since. I kinda like to take it at a breakneck pace. To be honest, these days it varies a bit. Some of it’s taken at a leisurely walking pace. I guess that’s age for you. It’s not because I haven’t got the energy, it’s just that I think my stuff is a lot more reflective now than it ever was. But, the Ramones, like most rock and roll, is about instant gratification. It’s not a reflective medium, rock and roll.

It’s about, “I want it all, now.”

I work with a Brazilian girl who loves your work but I’m not sure understands everything that you’re saying—it’s all about your delivery. Do you think delivery is as important as the words themselves?

How fabulous is that? I love that. Yeah, absolutely it is. That’s true of every record you’ve ever liked, isn’t it? I had a group in the 60s and of course, one of our idols was Chuck Berry. Every group we went to see, in the 60s did a bunch of Chuck Berry, otherwise, it was a, “what are you doing in the business?” kind of thing. I spent a lot of time trying to get the lyrics to “Too Much Monkey Business,” because a lot of it was jargon really—the vernacular was neighbourhood language, but hyper literate. He loved to tell you how literate he was in sneaky ways. I love the way deliberately mispronounces the Venus de Milo in “Brown Eyed Handson Man.” He referred to Marlo Venus. “Marlo Venus was a beautiful lass, she had the world in the palm of her hand. But she lost both her arms in a wrestling match to win a brown eyed handsome man. She fought and won herself a brown eyed handsome man.” You’ve just got to say the words and you’re singing the song, that’s the genius Chuck Berry. But that Marlo Venus, you know just sort of pulls you up, it’s all coming at you and then that just pulls you up, and you know he’s mispronouncing it on purpose. He knows it’s the Venus de Milo. If anybody had a library card, it was Chuck Berry [laughs]. But sensational the tricks you can pick up. I used to play it over and over, and I wore it out trying to get the lyrics. I just so much wanted to sing that song.

So what did you end up doing? Did you end up just making up your own lyrics?

I used to just make up what I didn’t understand. I don’t think Bob Dylan would have written, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” if he got all the words to “Too Much Monkey Business.” It’s almost the same song.

That reminds me of Elvis Costello’s response to a tweet accusing Olivia Rodrigo of plagiarizing “Pump it up” for her song “Brutal”—“This is fine by me, Billy. It’s how rock and roll works. You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did. #subterreaneanhomesickblues #toomuchmonkeybusiness.”

There you go, Declan. Yeah! Of course he did. Anybody who plays those songs where every line is dynamic. The last thing Chuck was, was a blues singer. He never did any blues stuff. He used to listen to George Jones and Hank Williams, people like that—country music. That’s such a rich vein of inspiration right there. Even Miles Davis used to listen to it. Him

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and all those jazzers like Dizzy Gillespie. You couldn’t get further away from country music than those cats. They were in some beanery and they put this record by Hank Williams, and of course it was redneck music back then, and they were quite politically engaged dudes. “What are you listening to this stuff for?” The story. It’s the true stories of people’s lives, sharpened up into a song. I love country music. That’s what Chuck used to listen to all the time, he loved stuff like that. Stuff with stories, not that ‘two repeat lines and then the hook,’ classic 12 bar pattern. That wasn’t Chuck’s thing at all. He very rarely repeated any lines unless it was in the chorus or the middle eight. The thing was just a straightforward story of some shit that happened [laughs], made into a jewel of a song.

Unfortunately, for many he’ll be remembered for “My Ding-a-Ling.”

Isn’t that a tragedy? You see it happen quite a lot. I always feel the same way about Bob Marley, only being known for “No Woman No Cry”—it’s not even a reggae tune. It’s not very representative of Bob’s work. Chuck didn’t mind, you know, give the punkers what they want. “You want “My Ding-a-Ling,”? I wrote the motherfucker—ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching.”

I guess we all do it to a certain point, right? You perform your new stuff but you know the fans want to hear, “I Married a Monster From Outer Space” or “Twat” or whatever, so you’re going to pepper those in.

Sure thing Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I’m glad they do.

Elton John once said if a song idea didn’t develop within 15 minutes, he’d abandon it and move on… on the other side we have artists like the Beatles who would string together ideas from different songs to make a complete piece—a la “Day in the Life” or the “I’ve Got a Feeling”. You’ve said, “a poem is never finished, it’s merely abandoned.” So are you constantly changing your old work and updating it to keep it current?

Well, I don’t actually sit down and do that because my stuff comes alive for me when I’m in a live situation. The main part of my job is live appearances and that’s when suddenly, one day, a line will seem clumsy to me, in a split second, so I just change it like that. I don’t ever really re-write ‘em but I’m always messing around with them. Just keeping it fresh and fun for myself as well. Again, I go back to Chuck Berry on this, I did a tour with him once—six days in Spain, a different town every night. It’s a long story but I was his MC–I wasn’t even doing any poems, I was just bigging up Chuck. I was like that guy that introduced James Brown on the T.A.M.I. Show, you know, “your guy.” The guy that’s there just to talk you up. I was that guy... I am really good at that job. So he wouldn’t do the tour, which was being promoted by my ex-manager, the late Alan Wise. Before the tour, he was putting him on with Jerry Lee Lewis at the Manchester Opera House. You had the greatest piano player that ever lived and the most literate lyricist alive at the time and I said, “I’m writing myself in as the MC for this.” So I brought them on and they were both really knocked out with my introduction. It was totally right over the top. I remember what I said about Jerry Lee, it was like, “Here he is ladies and gentlemen, all the way from Ferriday, Louisiana. 99 pounds of pure industrial strength Soviet era radioactive dynamite. The greatest piano player the world has ever known. They call him the killer. His name is Jerry Lee Lewis!” Terrific. I did a similar sort of jump for Chuck. Anyway, he wouldn’t do this tour of Spain unless they wrote me in as the MC? So there I was and we talked about a lot of things—that’s when I found out that he liked to listen to George Jones and all of this.

He would dismantle his songs and put them back together every night. Every night it was like, “You’ve never heard it like this before.” It’s unbelievable.

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He used pickup bands—different players in each city, right?

Now, I love a circular conversation! Like we said before, what’re you doing in the rock and roll business if you’re not doing any Chuck Berry songs?

And Chuck, he knows that. He doesn’t need people who are, you know, good. He needs that chugging, riff. Just three timekeepers, that’s all Chuck needs—a rhythm section. Some guy’s just chugging away in the background and any of the flower stuff, old Chuck does it. And he does it in a way that doesn’t involve anybody else. He’s always slightly out of tune.

He does it on purpose. Not enough to really get on your nerves but just to keep you interested. The audience don’t care if it’s a bunch of bozos standing around plunking away, they’re not interested [laughs].

I failed English all the way through high school, and had to repeat the classes in summer school—mainly because I was too busy reading books that interested me. “A Tale of Two Cities” didn’t resonate with 14-year-old David, true crime with a focus on the Italian Mob was my thing. I heard your poetry is part of the UK curriculum—fantastic.

Do you have any idea how that happened? Who’s responsible? Do you agree with it?

Yeah, that’s right. I wasn’t invited to the meeting, David [laughs]. I don’t know who decided that, but I’m glad they did. There used to be a really fabulous English poet in the 60s called Adrian Mitchell. He was very popular, and he hated the idea of his stuff being on the school curriculum, and I could kind of understand it because I hated schools. But I did like poetry so I didn’t have a problem with it. If they had asked me I would have said, yeah. I thought, well, what other way is there of having it rammed down the reluctant throats of school children on a daily basis? [laughs] I think it’s fantastic. I remember one of the only times English class connected with me, was when our teacher asked us to bring in our own poems via a pop song. I brought in an Eleanor Rigby. If I had the opportunity at the age of 14 to study your work, that’d be amazing.

Yeah, well apparently it’s very popular. Every teacher I’ve ever run into has always said the same thing—that’s what the kids dig at school, by a long way. That’s fabulous. It brought me a whole new generation of fans. I work a lot with other acts my age, and I look at my audience, and I look at their audience and touch wood, my audience is every kinda age, every kind of people, men and women, all kinds. Like that Brazilian friend of yours. Even people for whom English isn’t their first language, seem to get a bang out of it somehow. In fact, I was in Portugal for the first time about five years ago, I did a one-off art thing in Lisbon and I thought, nobody’s gonna show up for this, and no, no it was a full house—and nobody left! Everybody was real enthusiastic about it. So it’s not the first time that I’ve noticed that the actual language–it’s not irrelevant, obviously—but it doesn’t have to be your first language. That’s amazing.

I’ve done my best to introduce my children to everything that I think is culturally cool and they reciprocate by showing me what’s cool in their world. A few years back, I gave my son the John Cooper Clarke lesson and we spent an evening watching videos of your performances on YouTube. When “I Wanna be Yours” came up, he recognized the words from the Arctic Monkeys’ song—we were both JCC fans coming from different angles. Me as an old fan and Noah via Alex Turner and the Arctic Monkeys, who had used your lyrics to create a new song.

Well, thanks very much kid. Wow fabulous! That’s exactly what they’ve done. A poem is never a song but it is when you just tweak it, like Alex supplied a middle eight and a little chorus that wasn’t there when I wrote

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it. He’s converted a poem into a song, something that doesn’t often happen—not successfully anyway–but he’s done a great job on that.

There are people that love that song and don’t even know that I’ve got anything to do with it. I’ll name one that I know for a fact. Have you heard of a woman called Abbey Clancy? She’s a supermodel. Beautiful girl. I was reading about her in one of the newspapers at the time and she was saying, “My favourite record is AM, the latest album from Arctic Monkeys, particularly “I Wanna Be Yours.” So she probably don’t even know it. If she’s like me she don’t really read sleeve notes, but she’s a big fan of mine!

So that was the beginning of your second coming? As you’ve said in the past, you’ve been famous twice—in the late 70s/early 80s and again now.

Yeah, yeah, far more now than I was in the 70s and 80s, because communications have become more widespread. You can’t really keep anything hidden anymore. It’s not a matter of self publicity so much anymore.

People will find whatever it is that they’re looking for electronically now.

We’re dealing in larger numbers of people now than we were talking about in the days of punk rock. Having said that, I did have a top 30 single with “Beasley Street,” and Snap, Crackle & Bop, got into the top 20 albums. In those days, you really had to sell a lot of records to get into those lists. Not so relevant now. So maybe I sold more product back then but I’m much higher profile now than I was then. I was very much part of that small world of punk rock, really. It was a very small world and it only lasted two years.

Right, then it switched over to a more radio-friendly genre, under the banner of new wave and it became totally different.

Well, it took a while but I mean, when you think about the 80s, it couldn’t have been more reactive to punk ethos. It was all about conspicuous consumption and billion dollar promotional videos, you know, Duran Duran.

I’m not having a go at it, that’s what pop music is all about—a quick way to wealth... along with boxing and football—all those traditional routes out of poverty and into mega bucks territory Whereas punk, especially in the UK, was very political.

I think that’s when it went off the boil. I think there was something kind of inevitable about that, but at the same time, that’s what killed it for me.

When it first happened, you had some good people from very diverse areas. It was as much about fashion and haberdashery, as it was about music. It certainly had little to do with musical proficiency. Even though that sort of, ‘we can’t play thing’ has been sort of hyped. They could all play like motherfuckers. Steve Jones was like a one man orchestra.

I know! That whole Sex Pistols album is just his guitars.

Unbelievable. Even now Jonesy says, “that wasn’t me, that was Chris Spedding.” It was him, I’ve seen them live. He keeps up the myth that when they did live shows Chris Spedding was behind the curtain. He still keeps that up but I saw them on their first appearance in Manchester and it was Steve Jones playing that guitar—I was looking for the other thousand guys [laughs]! Nah, that was a successful urban myth. It only really applied to Sid Vicious—he couldn’t play [laughs]. The Clash could have made it at any time, really. They quickly widened out their musical adventure. Go look at their albums, they’re not formulaic. No album sounds like the one that went before it and yet it sounded like The Clash. That’s a proper group, isn’t it. You could say that about the Beatles. There is a Beatles sound, but The Beatles don’t know what it is [laughs]. And that’s the important thing, isn’t it? You know, there are certain things about what

you o anyone. Like the sh sider... Wha5t9do t u o n a adow of the guillotine On a dead consumptive’s face. SpeakingLas USO LIFE

you do that you can’t know. I think Bill Withers put this best. I seen a recent TV interview of the late Bill Withers— and they were talking about how to write a song and he said that the manufacture of a song involves a kind of magic that I don’t want to look into. I think that’s a superstition shared by every artist I know. You can’t know everything about it, otherwise, you become a self parodist of sorts. There are all kinds of psychological pitfalls in trying to analyze what you do. It’s alright to do it for other people and in doing so, maybe get some runoff for yourself. I think that’s why very often, especially in the literary world, writers aren’t good critics. Not many writers have been successful critics.

If the story is true, ex-Stranglers singer Hugh Cornwell gets drunk, imagines what “MacArthur Park” would sound like sung by you, he rings you up and the two of you go into the studio to record a whole album of covers.

It wasn’t my idea but I’m so glad it happened. I love singing. I’ve always figured I could carry a tune, but I was cruelly brought up short on this when I was a kid. I got a tape recorder for Christmas in 1962. I thought, all me friends have got great record collections, I’ll just tape their records, then I could mess around doing bits of editing and splicing and shit—I’m just bugging the room. It’s always good fun, that. And then you play it back and everybody says, “That’s not me, is it? That’s not my voice.” Nobody ever recognizes their voice and I’m like, wait a minute, “That’s me?” Yeah, that’s me alright. I’m thinking, “Well, that sounds like my mum. That sounds like my brother Paul. Everybody sounds like they sound, so that must be me.”

And you know, for about 15 years, I went from turning every incident in the day to a song, to never opening my mouth in song for about 15 years. Oh, God, up to then I’d been deluded that I could really carry and a tune. Like, I’ll tell you, as I was saying before, I was trying to get a group together, so what a horrible epiphany that was! So to have a chance of putting it right, all these decades later, to be given that chance from H was a real gift.

I’ll tell you how it happened, actually. We’ve got mutual friends, and obviously I’ve been running into Hugh Cornwell over the years, through the medium of punk rock. Being on telly here and there, festivals, radio shows, you know, we had a sort of ‘hello’ relationship. We wouldn’t have had a drink together, but we’ve got a mutual pal in Essex, where I live, and we’re having dinner at his house and he says, “You know, I’m putting together an album of covers. Would you mind doing MacArthur Park?” So I says, “That’s a bit ambitious, H. MacArthur Park—it’s calling for the big operatic voice there.” So, anyway, it’s quite poetic, isn’t it? Whatever it is, the story is quite arcane. It’s something that only really Jimmy Webb could know about, but it’s enough to inspire this song—a big hit for Richard Harris in 1968. Nobody understands it. So I turned up at his home studio in Chippenham and he’s got the track down. He’s got Ian Anderson, the Jethro Tull guy doing a flute solo, he’s got only superstars on it. I started singing and I thought, I’d better have me Sunday best baritone for this. So I give it the big opera treatment and he says to me, “I thought you were gonna recite that,” which is what I had suspected. He says, “I thought you would approach it like a poem.” He was impressed, and said, “I didn’t know you could sing.” So I said, “Yeah, neither did anybody.”

If you look at the lyrics to MacArthur Park, you couldn’t speak those lyrics because actually, they’re quite mono syllabic. They’re not mellifluous enough to be able to convincingly speak. What I’m saying is, there’s a difference between a poem and a song, and there’s no greater example of a song than MacArthur Park. If I had of recited them, like a poem, I would have sounded like, Captain Kirk! You know, William Shatner’s version of, “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” Remember that? [Laughs and goes into a Shatner impression] “Some-one-left-the-cake-out-in-the-rainI-don’t-think-that-I-can-take-it.” I wouldn’t do that. It’s the ravings of a

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e tt madman, but you know, [sings the verse] “Someone left the cake out in the rain. I don’t think that I can take it.” I mean, that’s different, you know... that’s opera. It’s a moment made universal forever by virtue of melody, but there’s no way you could just recite that. So, he says to me, “You did a good job. Everybody agrees, including me, that you oughta sing every track on this album.” We didn’t do any more than three takes on any of those tracks, because I was in a hurry to go to France—me and my wife were going on holiday. So I said right, what are the other tracks? He gives me the other tracks but then I went hold on when we got to “It’s Only Make Believe”. I said, “Christ, you’re joking H, aren’t ya?” You know, that’s Conway Twitty. I ain’t walking in the footsteps of giants like Conway Twitty.

I’m gonna wind up looking second best on this one. You know, you need a vocal range. Anyway he had every confidence in me. He said, “Johnny we’re gonna do that one first. You can do it.” Because there’s a semitone key change after the saxophone solo—it’s karaoke suicide. You check it out. Everybody miss-pitches it. They forget about that semitone key change after the solo and you’re left with the introduction to puberty [makes cracking voice noises and laughs]. It’s a tough one but I pitched it dead right. Under-pitched it. I came out of the basement and finished up in the heavens. So after that everything else was a doddle. It was a great choice of songs.

You didn’t have a hand in selecting any of the songs?

No, no, he’d already selected them and they’d already put all the tracks down. He’d got all the people, like the engineer was a guy called Phil Andrews who’d worked with Led Zeppelin. So everybody involved in it knew what they were doing—there was quality control out of its brains. So to find a place with these people and not make an idiot out of myself, well, I couldn’t be happier about that. That opportunity was just terrific. We even went out on a short tour promoting it and that was terrific. Singing in public, I’m glad I did it once—superb. And some of the tracks are just a joy to sing. I already knew the lyrics to every track apart from MacArthur Park—it’d been a long time since I heard that track. There’s a lot going on in that number. The rest of them I already knew.

How did you find tackling other artist’s words vs. recording yours?

I had heard that you didn’t care much for being in the studio with your stuff.

Well, it wasn’t my idea. I’m a total control freak, so if something isn’t my idea, I’m very disparaging about it but I couldn’t find a convincing argument against it at the time. It works and I’m glad it happened now, but for years, I had a bug up my ass about it. I thought it sort of cramped my style. Like I was saying before, I vary the speed of my delivery, even within the same poem–some bits rushed and garbled, others are lingered over, you know what I mean? That’s just technique. When you’re a one man operation you get these little quirks that kinda make you who you are. So when you’re trying to sort of fit these poems into a preset kind of musical soundscape, I found it was kind of limiting for me. Again, I couldn’t give a good reason why not, so I went along with it. But even saying that you know, I was proven wrong in some cases. Some of those tracks wouldn’t have been written had the music not been there—the music came first and I had to use the studio time. Sometimes the music inspired a lyrical approach that I hadn’t erstwhile taken. I’m thinking of one called “A Distant Relation” on the Snap, Crackle and Bop LP. It’s got kinda jangly, beautiful filigree, arpeggiated guitar—very Johnny Marr-like. And understandably when I tell you that it’s Vincent Reilly playing on that one, who after the Smiths broke up, played on “Suedehead” and those early Morrissey records. He used to be in a punk group called The Nosebleeds.

He’s still working now with my friend, Bruce Mitchell, the greatest drummer that ever lived under the name, Durutti Column.

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hing met n so wh e Well he’s a very busy guy, H. He’s a worldwide phenomenon. He’s always working, even more than I do, all over the world, so I don’t think that opportunity will present itself again but if he ever needs my help, he’s got my number! It was a great thing and I’m glad I did it but I don’t think it made any of us any money. Probably more likely to plunge us into poverty [laughs]. I don’t know anybody makes money out of records anymore but I’m not gonna go into that. I’m glad we did it and it turned out pretty good.

I love it. It’s on heavy rotation at the Ganhão house. It’s been the soundtrack to many dinners.

Thank you, David. Really good to know. Which is your favourite track then?

Spanish Harlem is a fave.

Yeah, I love “Spanish Harlem” it’s a beautiful song. I like the ballads. I think I’m more of a balladeer than an out and out rocker. I like that Ricky Nelson number at the end, “Sweeter Than You.” It’s a beautiful song. I love “Donna”. I like that one because H sings on it with me. [Sings] “Oh Donna” and I think our voices are lovely together. He’s a fabulous singer, H. To get political for a bit, we have a former comedian/actor/all-purpose entertainer leading the Ukraine—he seems to be doing a fantastic job defending his country… what are your thoughts on having the class clown in charge of the school?

Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it. We’ll have to wait and see won’t we. I’m totally ignorant about this. I don’t know what happened to my non-digital radio which is usually on in the background all day, but it packed up! I think it’s a message from God, I’m merciful and ignorant of developments, so I don’t really have too much of an opinion. It could make you miserable though, couldn’t it.

Fair enough. Even though we’re a media company with newspapers, radio and television, as the Creative Director, I tend to steer away from the stories and focus on my work–I don’t pay much attention.

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Do you think there’ll be another album with the two of you?

Yeah, exactly. Me too. With what I do, if it’s topical, it’s accidental. I’m not really an issue lead writer. Like you, I tend to deal in the surface of things.

I don’t think that’s a bad thing. A lot of people miss out on a lot. They don’t pay enough attention to the surface of things. I think it’s a great artist that draws your attention to things that are in plain sight. Things that you just forget about because it’s been in the corner of your eye for too long but you cease to pay it any importance. If I scratch the surface, it’s not very deep. [laughs].

Your memoir, I Wanna Be Yours, went pretty deep into your life.

I left a lot of stuff out. I tried to put in the entertaining bits, so it had some kind of trajectory and read like a story but there’s a lot of stuff I missed out. Is it very analytical? I don’t know really, whether it is.

When the memoir was released, I immediately ordered a signed copy for my son (thank you)… and bought the audiobook for myself.

He actually read the book, then read it a second time with you… we found it entertaining.

He even did a rock album.

Yeah, now that is a great album! Rock Swings. I love that record, it just shows you how a different treatment will make you look at a song. That’s a good case in point. I was at a wedding with my wife and daughter in France and they were playing music at the after show party, and I think, I know this voice... and yet he’s singing “Eye of the Tiger.” So I had to go up there, I said, “excuse me,” in bad French, “Is this Paul Anka?” The DJ says yeah, so I made a point of buying it. I’ve never been a mega fan of REM, I see their worth—they can all play nice tunes but I’ve never really understood what their songs are dealing with. I’m a bit pernickety like that. But when I heard his version of “Everybody Hurts,” then I understood what that song is all about. It took Paul Anka. What a fabulous song that is, I’ve always overlooked it—just put it in a bag marked REM and stuck it in a corner. Not interested at this point [laughs]. He didn’t really do much to it, he sings it the way it is, but he just kind of puts in those little Vegas inflections—really makes you have it. Great voice. Great singer. Great songwriter. Big fan— Paul Anka. He’s gotta be the top guy in Canada... or is that Neil Young?

It depends on what side of the political fence you’re on.

m is s .

I hope you did. That was my main aim, really. I’ve never psychoanalyzed myself. Where people would psychoanalyze themselves, I write poetry [laughs]. Maybe it’s a kinda displacement exercise or something. I’ve never written poetry as a kind of therapy, or as a cathartic expel to deal with any issues inside myself. Like I said early on, I started writing poetry in order to make a living out of it—it’s the only thing I’ve got a knack for [laughs]. I’ve always got an audience however, ill defined. I’ve got an audience to consider and one’s own psychology is only really of any use to oneself. That’s part of the fun anyway—reading somebody’s stuff and getting psychological about it. It’s always easier to do with other people.

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As a poet, was it harder to write your memoir as opposed to it being in verse?

What does that apply to Neil Young? A bit curmudgeonly in later life I believe. Well he’s got too much time in his hands—he should be sockin’ it to the free world. Somebody should remind him that rust never sleeps.

We started with food, so we’ll end with food… and there’s only one correct answer to this question. I know you enjoy custards… are you a fan of the pastel de nata?

Oh yeah, absolutely that’s my favourite breakfast cake. johncooperclarke.com listen to our JCC spotify playlist

Well, yeah, it’s not something I ever did. Like I say, self-revelation isn’t my aim in a poem. Mainly because, one has to be an adopter of positions in order to get some things across. I’ve got one called “The Motorist,” but I’m not allowed to drive [laughs]. So, it’s written just as an adopter of positions, the motorist currently has been the scapegoat of the world isn’t he—a white guy in a car is responsible for all the misery in the world, to hear some people talk. So for the purposes of getting an angle on something, “The Motorist” is written in the first person. Just saying that because it’s quite a current poem, really. It’s always fun to take the part of somebody who is socially reviled. I’m an adopter of position, so yes, writing about myself and my experiences—good job I’ve got a good memory—was a new experience. I tried to keep it conversational. There’s no particular style involved.

It comes across as quite stylish, I know, but there is no ammo going on there that I’m familiar with. In fact, it was spoken, recorded and then transcribed, then gone over again and sharpened up. It’s the best way I know of doing things, in fact your own country-man was a great influence on me here. I read a lot of biographies, autobiographies, memoirs and things like that, more so than I read fiction now. One of the best memoirs I’ve read in recent years was Paul Anka.

I haven’t read that one.

It’s fantastic. I can’t recommend it enough. He’s from Ottawa and moved to the States very early on. He was kind of a big influence on me. He’s in my book, it says that he was the first teenage millionaire [laughs]. So he was a big influence on me, plus I loved his first hit, “Diana.” Everybody loved that song, it was number one all over the world. I’m still a big fan now.

He still looks great, doesn’t he.

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words: inês carpinteiro

W

e have come a long way from sticks and stones. The battleground expanded, the conflicts we face have evolved and so have the weapons at our disposal. Modern warfare is a high-tech arena and social media has emerged as an unexpected and resourceful weapon.

In the past few decades, public image has become an essential tool in politics, and we have seen examples of how its manipulation can alter a country’s direction. The first televised presidential debate exposed that fact. In an age haunted by the Cold War, the space race, a paranoiac fear of communism and the civil rights struggle raising questions about the state of democracy, consequently, the United States were in desperate need of strong leadership. On one side, there was Kennedy—the young, dynamic, senator for Massachusetts, on the other, Nixon—the lawmaker with extensive foreign policy experience, who was serving as Vice-President. On September 26, 1960, the debate, which became the biggest contributing factor to Kennedy’s win, was broadcast on radio and on television.

They both presented similar agendas, but the public had different opinions solely based on which device they used to receive the broadcast. Television was the new medium and politicians were still trying to figure out how to interact with the public in a more intimate manner.

After a day of campaigning and exhibiting injuries from an accident that affected his knee, Nixon looked drained. Not being used to this new setting, he would look at the reporters but not at the cameras, the hot studio lights were making him sweat, his cosmetic approach left him with a pale and unhealthy look, and the wardrobe choice—a light grey suit—made it worse as it blended with his skin and made him fade into the background. In contrast, Kennedy’s approach was masterful. He presented himself much more naturally in front of the cameras, which was a swaying factor for a majority of the 70 million television viewers—of course that he had a picture-perfect wife also helped charm the nation.

Fast forwarding to today, where taking advantage of social media exposure to build a positive public image has become indispensable. Social media has become a channel to spread information and to create ‘emotional contagion’. If

Illustration: David Ganhão

you go viral and spread your truth, you may gain an advantage and shape how the story rolls. In a period where most people don’t feel confident in the messages shared by politicians or even news channels, social media has presented itself as an option where the audience feels personally connected to the message. It can be used to shape perception, inform far-reaching audiences, to legitimate certain operations and disseminate real-time messaging.

played the main character—a history teacher who revolts against the government and ends up elected president to fight against the old politics. In 2018, fiction and reality merged, and Zelenskyy announced he would be running for Presidency against Poroshenko—Putin’s favorite candidate. He would go on to win with 73% of votes. Despite his political inexperience, the President of Ukraine has been seen as a force of union and resistance.

We have seen social media being used for evil–from the theory that Russian operatives have used Facebook and Twitter to influence the 2016 presidential elections in the US to ISIS exploiting these platforms to recruit new followers and spread fear. If it’s true that social media may be a source of misinformation and deceit, it is equally certain that it can be used to enlighten the audience.

Since February 24th, Zelensky has been using his social media platforms to update the world on the inhumane Russian attacks and the colossal destruction, to reinforce an anti-Putin sentiment. He has shared information from his diplomatic meetings, the support offered by his allies, thanking them, and making them accountable for their promises in the public eye. The way he presents himself, both in formal and casual wear, reporting live on location, generates sympathy and a feeling of closeness. His experience on camera and his capacity to connect with the public are some of the great assets he brings to politics. He refused to leave Ukraine, even when urged by the US to evacuate and videos of his response— “I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition”— have circled the globe. Instead, he chose to stay and fight for the perseverance of democracy, side by side with all Ukrainians, giving strength for the population to keep going, and gaining worldwide admiration and respect along the way.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine may be one of the best case studies. This is one of the first times a war has been broadcast live and where a President–Volodymyr Zelensky–has resorted to social media platforms to spread his message, to apply political pressure and to create alliances. What is better than the support of certain politicians? The support of millions of citizens across the world, who force their politicians to act.

Considering that Putin has been trying to sell an alternative narrative–pointing out that Russia acted in response to attacks and to free the Ukrainian people from a Nazi domain–when he felt the world indignation following his military act, he decided to block most social media platforms and limit free speech in the country’s media platforms as an effort to contain the anti-Russia stand.

A military operation that has been preparing for months–possibly even years, in his mind— may end up a total failure or have disastrous consequences for the aggressor, and some of it is due to the power of social media. With a much superior military power, Putin forgot to consider the willpower of the Ukrainian people, whose acts of bravery have been shared and have inspired others to join their fight.

Zelensky, an actor and comedian who also holds a law degree, is a political novice facing one of the biggest diplomatic crises in Europe.

On the TV series ‘Servant of the People’, he

Social media has also become a communication lifeline for those fighting in the country allowing them to be in contact with the world, providing a glimpse of the Russian Invasion. We have been flooded with pictures and videos of Ukrainians proudly defending their homes.

Citizens and military troops have shared the reality they have been living. Marta Vasyuta, a Ukraine citizen, has shared a video of a bombardment near Kyiv which has seen more than 50 million views. Alex Hook, a Ukrainian soldier, went viral on TikTok for sharing his dances with other soldiers designed to give his five years old daughter peace of mind. The emotional stories and images make it more likely for a person to watch, to share and follow the source, even the algorithms feed us that content.

At this rate, social media may become the most valuable weapon of democracy.

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WORDS & Illustration:

David Ganhão

n 1985, I was a regular Canadian teen. My 16 years on earth had been fairly normal and aside from losing my father 10 years earlier, my life was what most would consider typical and non-eventful. I went to school, came home to a loving family, I was learning to drive, I flirted with girls and played guitar in a band—life was super fantastical. One of my after school rituals was not doing homework, but sitting down in front of the television every day at 4pm to watch Toronto Rocks, a local music video show hosted by the late John Majhor.

For one hour each day, I soaked in pop culture via this new music medium and loved every second. Sometime in autumn of 1985, an unknown Canadian singer named Doug Cameron appeared on the screen with his video for “Mona with the Children.” The song told the story of Mona Mahmudnizhad, a Persian Bahá’í girl, who together with nine other Bahá’í women, was sentenced to death in Iran, because of her membership in the Bahá’í Faith. Mona was 16 when she was hanged. The song resonated with me (to this day it is an earworm that randomly pops into my head). I lived in a country where my biggest worries were perfecting the riff to Crazy Train and passing my driver’s exam in November, while 10,000 km away, Mona was executed because her religious beliefs didn’t jive with those of her government. That’s the power of the protest song.

It’s safe to assume that the first protest song and the first injustice were created on the same day. I don’t have proof, but it’s possible that after eating the forbidden fruit and being accused of bringing sin to the world, rather than being heralded as the first independent woman, Eve sang a song protesting her character assassination; or the fact that one day church leaders would 68

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preach she was made as an afterthought and therefore not an equal to her partner—think Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”. (BTW, if you think Adam is superior because he was created first, don’t forget that God made animals before man… let that sink in).

What did Eve’s song sound like? Who knows. Recorded music wouldn’t appear until the 1930s and prior to that, most protest songs had simple, easyto-learn call and response lyrics sung to the tune of songs people already knew. With radios and record players as the new source for music, the oral tradition of song was brought into our homes via the pop music of the day.

WIth music being transmitted into homes electronically, songs evolved.

No longer were they simply chants or a call to arms—tunes and lyrics became more complex and this new music was art. Enter Billie Holiday’s 1939 song “Strange Fruit.” It’s a dark, bitter poem expressing the horrors of lynching, using fruit as a metaphor for the hanged black bodies. “Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black body swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees…” It’s a song of revulsion.

There is no distinct style associated with the protest song. They come in every style and cover a wide-range of social issues. What they do share, are bonding elements—focus on the tvulnerable, fearlessness to speak up against injustice, and a desire to invoke political or social change… and if done right, a great protest song will take on the current issues, transcend eras and speak to future generations.

“Give Peace a Chance” is one of those songs. Written and recorded in 1969

during John and Yoko’s Bed-in for Peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, the song is a minimalist, catchy, anti-war anthem that sparked from an interview. When asked what he was trying to achieve with the Bed-in, Lennon answered, “give peace a chance.”

The man knew a great slogan when he heard one [“War is over if you Want it”, “All you Need is Love”], so he brought in some mics, a 4-track recorder and had everyone in the room sing the chorus—“All we are saying, is give peace a chance.”Within months, protesters were outside the White House chanting the chorus, in protest of Vietnam War. Fast forward 53 years—on March 4 and 8 of this year, 350 radio stations broadcast Lennon’s song as a call for peace against the Russian invasion of Ukraine—one message transcending areas.

Some artists have built entire careers standing up to the man—The Lowest of the Low’s Ron Hawkins singing stories of revolution; Billy Bragg strumming his jangly guitar for political change; and Public Enemy using rhyme to shine a spotlight on American racism.

Then there’s “The only band that matters.” The band that preferred being referred to as a “news-giving group” rather than a rock and roll group; the band whose leader, lyricist and spokesman, Joe Strummer once said, “The news is news, right?

So it’s not boring. I mean, it’s what’s happening now, you know. We like to plug into what’s happening now;” the band who had genuine concern for working people and those who were oppressed. Almost every song written by The Clash can be considered a form of protest (or at very least socially conscious), shining their spotlight on a wide array of issues—the dangers of homegrown fascism [“English

Civil War”], unemployment [“Career Opportunities”], U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War [“Charlie don’t surf], climate change [“London Calling”], and police brutality [“Know Your Rights”]. Often one song tackled a variety of issues—”Straight to Hell” speaks to factory workers losing their jobs, the alienation of immigrants, and the children fathered, then abandoned by US soldiers in Vietnam.

Appropriately, 26 years later, M.I.A. sampled the song when she wrote, “Paper Planes.’ Drawing from personal experience, the song speaks to how immigrants and refugees from wartorn countries would adapt to living in a super-Capitalist country like the US. Mix in gunshots and cash register sounds to represent how these people are perceived by their hosts, and you have a very catchy protest song.

Some protest songs aren’t as easy to identify as others but before you know it, you’re stopped at a red light, screaming “I’m just a girl” to anyone within earshot… Yes, No Doubt’s 1995 sarcastic hit is all about gender equality. Others are totally misunderstood.

If you only listen to the cheerful chorus of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”, you can be forgiven for thinking the song is a pro-America anthem, which is why politicians from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump have tried to use it during election campaigns, totally missing the message of how the U.S. had neglected Vietnam war veterans. “This Is England” from the Clash (again), had the same effect—a big patriotic chorus, but pay attention and you’ll hear an attack of Margaret Thatcher’s England; and possibly the most misunderstood is Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” which is often thought to be a patriotic song but in reality was a critique of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”

Rich, preachy musicians can be seen as a bit ingenue…some figure Bono and his buddies should simply drain their bank accounts and throw money at the world’s problems to make them go away. Yes, I believe the rich have a social obligation to help the less fortunate, but I think there’s something to be said for passionate people spreading awareness of the injustices that happen globally. Through them, I learned about Ethiopian famine from Bob Geldof, Tibetan independence from The Beastie Boys, and inner city poverty from Grandmaster Flash.

The use of protest in music has a rich history that spans across all genres.

Some of the greatest music of the last century spoke out against injustice, oppression, and war.

Often, during times of conflict musicians emerge as the most outspoken critics, speaking out against injustice, oppression, and war… and creating some of history’s greatest songs along the way. Recently, the murder of George Floyd sparked a flurry of music [some new and some old] protesting racial injustice and police brutality— Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright”, “This is America” by Childish Gambino and “Fuck Tha Police” by N.W.A. seemed as relevant in 2020 as it was in 1988. Less than a month after the murder, Anderson .Paak reacted with “Lockdown.”

Released on Juneteenth, a U.S. holiday commemorating the liberation of African-Americans slaves, he details his experience at the Black Lives Matter protests in Los Angeles.

See You Now.” As I write this, Russia is bombing Kyiv and the Ukrainian people are using Twisted Sister’s “We’re not going to take it” as their anthem of rebellion. Not exactly a protest song, but it’s giving strength to their fight—music is powerful.

Two weeks before writing this article, the American Senate passed a bill to make lynching a federal hate crime.

You read that correctly, after some 200 bills that have been introduced over the past century, the Senate [finally] unanimously agreed that hanging black people—an act whose sole purpose is to spread fear in order to maintain white hierarchy—is wrong.

God bless America. The fact that most protest songs are still relevant decades after they’re written is a sad commentary on the state of society.

I had always been drawn to angsty music—The Clash, U2, John was my favourite Beatle—but until Mona with the Children, I’m not sure I was paying attention. That one song made me go back into my catalogue and listen.

Listen to Joe Strummer’s call to action in “White Riot” when he expressed that young white kids should be just as outraged at their oppressors as the blacks kids were, and they should demonstrate through protest; listen to Bono be the voice for the dead victims of IRA bombings in Northern Ireland; listen to John Lennon tell the world to simply, “Give Peace a Chance.”

listen to our selection protest songs on spotify

of

The #MeToo movement caused artists to hit hard with songs like Stella Donnelly’s “Boys Will Be Boys,” Soccer Mommy’s “Your Dog” and Amanda Palmer & Jasmine Power got straight to the point with “Mr. Weinstein Will LUSO LIFE

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TEN SAN DOS chefs:

p h o t o s :

w o r d s :

is a a c

mosna

+

is a a c

n o a h

liam

fleming

m o s n a

g a n h ã o

sandwich. Endless possibilities, dictated only by your palate… and perhaps how wide you can open your mouth.

Plan it in advance and hunt down the ingredients or wing it with whatever is in the kitchen; it’s flexibility may very well make it the perfect food. Some may think pizza does this just as well, but I would argue that it has limitations a sandwich does not (don’t tell pizza I said this though because full disclosure, we’re in a never-ending honeymoon phase).

As a kid, I didn’t think much of sandwiches… they were consumed often and out of pure necessity. Mum would throw one in my bag for lunch and (sometimes) I’d eat it. I say ‘sometimes’ because I was usually too busy chatting to eat what i deemed an unexciting meal. Clearly I was ungrateful for having my lunches packed and even more ungrateful for how exciting a sandwich could be.

I would attribute a large part of my appreciation for sandwiches to my boy Liam. Both a sandwich connoisseur and creator—he knows no bounds when 72

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it comes to filling the space between two pieces of bread. Ahead of this however, there was a pivotal moment in my palates maturation… People talk about sexual awakenings as a standout moment of their youth. I won’t speak to that but to another kind of awakening which happened when I was about 10. I was at a golf tournament (very off brand for me) and they were serving sandwiches; ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato on a papo seco (Portuguese bun) with mayo. Sounds unremarkable but this was big news given the fact that I did not eat mayo, was not big on any form of salad and had no desire to have tomato on my sandwiches. So believe it or not, this humble sandwich made quite the impact on little ol’ me. A quick fyi; I now love a good salad, it’s impossible to make a bad mayo based sauce and a tomato is a quick way to make any sando taste extra fresh. You could say it was a full 180.

Call it what you want, call it nothing, call it late for dinner—though you may end up hungry—whether it be an exaggerated take on a classic staple like the BLT or PBnJ, or something a little more post-modern like the grilled cheez-it, a

sandwich is whatever you want it to be… so that’s exactly what the boys did.

With that, we thank the likes of General Ock, Action Bronson, the independent shops around Toronto / New York and of course, Earl of Sandwich, who in 1762, rescued us from millennia of dark ages and expanded our palates forever.*

*As the story goes, the 4th Earl of Sandwich was playing cards and did not want to leave the gaming table to eat. He asked for a serving of roast beef to be placed between two slices of bread so he could eat with his hands. Thus, the Sandwich was born.

hoagie bun

toast bread

pesto thick-cut bacon mayo mortadella

sliced tomato

salami prosciutto

boston lettuce

swiss cheese mayo arugala pickle

salt/pepper

big deli

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english muffin

toast bread

spinach

fried egg

spicy mayo sauce

cheddar cheese

fried spam

pickles

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cheddar cheese

cheez-its

breaky sando

grilled cheez-it

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ciabatta

boston lettuce

brioche bun

arugula

prosciutto hot honey glaze fresh mozzarella

breaded chicken

baked sweet potato

pickles

mayo-based sauce

chicken cutlet

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sour dough loaf

brioche bun

jackfruit cheddar slices

spicy chili mayo vietnamese chili crisps purple onions

butter

boston lettuce

vietnamese chili grilled cheese

jackfruit pulled pork

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milk bread

brioche bun

butter

pesto

salted peanut butter

steak

strawberry jam

blue cheese crumble

peanut brittle crumble

fresh mozzarella

upscale pbnj

steak sando LUSO LIFE

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PHOTOS: noah ganhão

WORDS: david ganhão

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I first heard of SanRemo Bakery from my good friend James. It was ten years ago, and he was the Creative Director at the studio we both worked at. We had a client in Etobicoke and he used the bakery as headquarters for his meetings. There were too many breakfast meetings to count but having those meetings catered by SanRemo made listening to the client talk about himself [almost] bearable— if you’re anything like me, you’ve long come to the conclusion that most meetings can be handled via one or two simple emails. Occasionally James was kind enough to bring back treats for the designers who were stuck in the studio—maybe it was out of guilt, maybe it was a ploy to keep us happy, but knowing James it was simple kindness. Whatever the reason, we were always grateful and gobbled down every delectable crumb.

Five years later, I was hired here, as Creative Director for MDC Media Group. Before I had a chance to move my boxes of things to my new studio, I received a phone call from my friend

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Reno. It had been a few years since we had spoken, but he was excited about the news and had some of his own—Reno had been hired as Music Director at MDC (small world). Reno was super-excited, and his first order of business was telling me where we would be having lunch— SanRemo Bakery. “I’ve heard it’s good there,” I told him. Reno’s answer, “Oh God, you don’t understand…” Over the years I’ve witnessed him describe SanRemo to newbies and it’s always the same unfinished sentence, “Oh God, you don’t understand…” Makes me smile every time.

When it was time to choose a restaurant to photograph for this issue, I sat with my son Noah (incidentally, he also happens to fall into the friend category… funny how that works). “I think pizza would make for a good shoot.” I followed up with Rob Bozzo at SanRemo and he immediately offered up a recipe for pizza. With the stars aligned, we went in to shoot, chat and (eventually) eat.

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While Noah walked around the bakery’s kitchens taking photos, I chatted with brothers Eddie and Rob to get some background. They tell me how SanRemo’s Etobicoke roots spread back to 1969 when their father Natale Bozzo first opened his doors. His brothers and father joined later, and the family business thrived. Rob, Eddie and brother Nick spent their childhood working at the bakery, and when they were tired, they’d find a spot under one of the tables to take a nap. Eventually, the business was passed on to the three boys who are constantly changing things in order to keep up with the times. Eddie explained, “The key is you have to be able to change with the times. If you’re stuck in your way you’ll fall flat. If we had that mentality, there would be no way in hell we would deliver, no way in hell we would sell online, and so many other things. You adapt. I change things on a daily… my brothers think I’m crazy, always adding things to the menu, but if I think there’s something we need or that our customers want, I’ll add it.”

Quality control is also at the top of the list. The brothers are constantly scanning the room to make sure everything is running smoothly and

will stop to talk with customers who have a question or simply want to say hello. “We run the business,” says Rob. “We control it. If something doesn’t look right, we won’t sell it.

We work hands on, talking to the customers and dealing first-hand with any problems that come.” Eddie ads, “It’s not an easy life… let’s just say it’s not an eight hour day. I go to bed at 10pm and my alarm goes off at one in the morning.” I feel tired just hearing that sentence. Sleep deprived or not, the show must go on. There’s an average of 80 people working at any given time—baking, serving, prepping, cooking, cleaning—that’s a lot of moving parts, yet it all seems to run smoothly.

While Rob gave a new employee a short pep-talk, Eddie and I talked about rising food costs, he got upset, but not in the usual way. His concern lay with how it would affect their customers and other small businesses. “We’ll be fine, but with food costs going up daily, smaller restaurants will be forced to close their doors. It’s sad to see.” Their genuine concern for others is heartwarming. What also amazes me is how they remain humble and excited about the business. “Last week I spoke with a customer who was visiting from Venice,

and she told me that she had heard of us and had to come check us out.

She’s from Venice, Italy and she came here!”

So what’s the genius of SanRemo Bakery? What makes people stand in line to pick up a sandwich and some treats to take home? I’m going with friendship (yes, there’s a theme to this piece). Friends who work every day to serve friends who go out and spread the word to friends who show up and make new friends.

As I sit at LL HQ finishing this article, I’m staring at a doughnut. It’s been sitting on a paper towel in front of me for the last 32 minutes. It’s taken the patience of a Buddhist monk to not sink my teeth into it, but I’ve resisted and now it’s time to use it to—toast friends: James who designed the cover of this magazine, giving me the opportunity to finally work with him again; Noah who spent the better part of a Saturday shooting [and eating] pizza with me; Reno who went to visit his friend Rob at SanRemo today; and Rob who sent over a box of doughnuts for us to enjoy. To sweet friends. sanremobakery.com

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Hot Calabrese pizza pizza dough tomato sauce

Place dough in a covered container or a zip-lock bag and allow to rest at room temperature for at least 2 hours before baking.

grated mozzarella

Place stone or steel tray in oven and preheat to 245ºC [475ºF].

tomatoes

Take dough ball and flatten it with your hands on a lightly floured work surface.

Starting at the center and working outwards, use your fingertips to press the dough to 1/2-inch thick. Stretch dough into a 10 to 12-inch circle about 1/4-inch thick by draping over knuckles and gently stretching.

garlic cloves, sliced hot cacciatore sausage hot peppers black olives

Lightly sprinkle your pizza board (or a flat baking sheet) with cornmeal1 and transfer the flattened dough to the board.

green olives

Spoon on the tomato sauce and sprinkle with cheese.

salt

Add tomatoes, garlic, sausage, hot peppers, and olives2.

pepper

Season with salt and pepper.

basil

Sprinkle some cornmeal on the baking stone in the oven [careful, the oven is hot].

Give the board a light shake to see if the dough slides, if not, add a bit more cornmeal under the pizza.

Slide the pizza off of board and onto the baking stone in the oven. Bake until the crust is browned and the cheese is golden, about 10-15 minutes.

Top it with basil leaves.

1

preheating the baking stone or pizza pan for 20 minutes is the secret to getting crisp pizza crusts and perfectly cooked toppings.

2

be careful not to overload the pizza with toppings or your pizza will be soggy.

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PHOTO & words: Mike Neal psychic

Portrait

This photo was made at the first concert I ever photographed.

Drake was the biggest artist on the planet at the time this photo was taken, and he arguably still is. Man was breaking record after record, selling out arenas in every city, and being played on every station. Photographers work for years, sometimes decades, in hopes of having the opportunity to photograph someone with the influence, demand, and impact that he has. I was fortunate enough to photograph him in his home town, performing some of his biggest hits, at the absolute tippytop height of his career, and it was the first concert I ever photographed. I’m Serious.

This is kind of a strange story for me to tell because it throws people for a bit of a loop at first. The truth is, this opportunity was a complete accident. Nobody paid me to be there with my camera, nobody asked me to do it as a favour, and nobody honestly even knew who I was as a photographer (nothing’s changed since then). This was, for me, the epitome of being at the right place at the right time. To celebrate Canadas 150th birthday in 2017, there was a free concert at Nathan Phillips Square where one of the artists signed to Drakes label was scheduled to perform. I was 19 at the time, and when I heard

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about the show I thought, “this would be a good opportunity to practice concert photography”. I showed up early enough to be in front of the stage, and Drake appeared as a surprise guest towards the end of the night and performed 4 or 5 songs. That’s honestly the whole story; nothing too special.

I get all kinds of reactions from people when they see the photos from that night. For many of the people I work with today, the Drake photos are often seen as evidence of having some sort of “credibility” or “clout”. That’s always been really awkward to me, because it honestly couldn’t be further from the truth. I suppose that night ended up being pretty impactful in the long-run though, because 5 years later I’m still photographing concerts throughout the city when I get the chance to. I guess if there’s a moral to this story, it’s to try something new every now and then, because you might get lucky and find something you really enjoy doing. Try photographing a concert, or learning that instrument you’ve always wanted to be good at, or a sport you’ve always wanted to play, or a recipe you’ve always wanted to attempt, and if for whatever reason Drake makes an appearance for you as well, tell him I said hi.

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