LeftLion 48

LeftLion 48 officially declared summer open with the August/September Issue. Predictably we gave the Olympics a fair bit of coverage but with a Notts make-over. I chipped in with an interview with Mike Breckon who was the team manager of the Canadian cycling team at the ’72 Olympics when 11 members of the Israeli team were murdered by the Palestinian group Black September. Paul Fillingham (Think Amigo) knew Mike through his work with the National Byways and arranged the interview at Mike’s home. It was great to see all of his cycling mementoes and to learn he’d been involved with the Reg Harris statue campaign which is now at Manchester Velodrome. He told us his favourite Sillitoe book was Down From The Hill (an eighty mile cycle journey to find the elusive Alice Sands) and how his generation thought nothing of such journeys for love.

Mike said he’d never spoken about the tragedy before which I found remarkable given that it is the fortieth anniversary of Munich. He was, as he described it, ‘right in the eye of the storm’ as his accommodation was directly opposite the Israeli team. The press in Canada were hard on him for letting his team cycle in the backyard as things went on but as he explained, when you’re cooped up for 14 hours and with no real awareness at that time of what terrorism was, what was he meant to do? I suspect that they craved normality and the fact that they were outside at all just shows you how much times and attitudes have changed.

It was a tough interview that required sensitivity. I wasn’t going to push anything that would cause him distress, but he spoke openly and I suspect it was cathartic to confront what had been buried for so long. On occasion he welled up and had to catch his breath. Other times I watched his arm blister open with goose bumps as he recounted the ceremony held at the stadium the next day. He was overwhelmed at witnessing a German philharmonic orchestra playing tribute to dead Israeli’s in Berlin, so soon after the end of WWII.

Mike is currently writing an autobiography of his life through cycling and this episode will be chapter three. I have agreed to help him and so a bonus of this interview was a new friendship with an incredibly interesting and charismatic man. The only downside is that Paul Fillingham wasn’t credited as joint interviewee, as he should have been, and I would have preferred to have seen Mike inside the Berlin Olympic design rather than apart from it.

We covered six book reviews in the WriteLion section (S.C Maxfield, David Belbin, Megan Taylor, Peter Mortimer, Ian Strathcarron and Tim Cockburn) with a great balance across genres. Katie Half-Price, our ‘orangest book reviewer’ had a play with Jon McGregor, Robert and Edward Skidelsky and Dylan Jones. I recently asked Jon to be the patron of the Nottingham Writers’ Studio so I hope he takes the review in the good spirit in which it was written.

Photo by LeftLion.

What should have been the crowning glory turned out to be a big disappointment. We ran a two page feature on Raleigh which included snippets from the testimonies I’m using on The Space but the reference to The Space was left out which was a waste of good publicity. Worst still, there was no context to the testimonies. None of the facts I provided about Raleigh were included nor the reason we were doing the piece – it is the 125th anniversary of the cycle manufacturer! Consequently the piece felt like a sensationalised tabloid piece that had selected all of the gory details and missed out the facts. On The Space I have balanced these testimonies out by speaking to management and explaining why the factory eventually closed down. This is missing from the LeftLion piece because I wasn’t sent the proofs and because I didn’t write the introduction. At our next editorial meeting we will have to find a way of ensuring this never happens again as mistakes like this could seriously damage my reputation as well as that of the magazine.The only positive was the cracking sell text: Really, with an illustration of the Raleigh heron in a cap smoking a fag.

Interview with Mike Breckon

Lord Biro’s Olympic Rings

Sue me… Artwork Lord Biro.

The planning of the next issue of LeftLion has been a bit of a headache because of the Olympics. We’ve become so paranoid about what we can and can’t do with those frigging rings that none of us dare put a coffee cup down on the table for fear any stain may contravene strict branding regulations. This is because the Olympic rings (designed in 1912 and debuted in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics) are a trademark of the Olympic Movement and therefore they are doing everything they can to protect their brand. This should come as no surprise given that we live in an era where large corporations such as Marlboro have tried to paten light and celebs (in the loosest sense of the word) such as Paris Hilton have tried to monetise catchphrases such as ‘that’s hot’. It’s an absolute joke. So it was a relief to hear the London Major defiantly state: ‘If you want to stick five doughnuts in your window and call them Olympic rings then be my guest.’

The Olympic Movement has exclusive rights to any interlocking arrangement of five rings, as well as the usage of the word “Olympic” which has meant we have had to drop one illustration for the ‘Canadian in New Basford’ Column (because the rings in the image showed utter contempt for symmetry) as well as certain ones by Lord Biro featured on this page.

The 2012 logo finally looks good… Artwork Lord Biro.

 

I feel really angry about this because the Lord Biro drawing is his art work and commentary and therefore not our opinion. Yet such is the level of paranoia created by the ‘brand army’ – who have employed people to check out designs in posters, etc across the country – that we’ve failed to fully support someone who is making an important stance against this overburdening bureaucracy. But a potential £20,000 fine to a voluntary-run magazine is too much of a risk.

The Games look set to be over budget and nearing 11 billion. This is worrying, particularly as it took Montreal thirty years to pay off the debts accumulated from hosting the ’76 games. But with 2 billion raised through sponsorship it is understandable that some effort needs to be made to protect the rights of the marketing partners. The question is, how far do you go? What happens if someone employed to work at the games turns up for work with a can of Pepsi instead of Coca Cola or if they choose to wear Nike trainers instead of Adidas. How much personal freedom will be lost to ensure the partners claw back their returns? Is it going to be a case of straight bananas?

Two jugs Biro and me with a recession-busting Damien Hirst skull at the British Art Show, ‘Tempreh.

Lord Biro is the leader of the Bus-Pass Elvis Party. He recently stood in the Feltham Bye-election, December 2011 and campaigned against fast food corporations sponsoring sports events. In 2005 he campaigned against junk food in the General Election (Erewash) on behalf of the Church of the Militant Elvis, long before Jamie made such things fashionable. It is clear from his latest exhibition that when it comes to corporate sponsorship, he’s not lovin’ it. He seems to have a problem with McDonalds despite it being a well-known fact that all athletes love a burger, fries and McFlurry to help them hurry down the track. With a whopping 533 million being spent on security alone (that’s 243378995 Happy meals in case you were wondering) our favourite satirist is certainly spoilt for choice when it comes to venting spleen although he might just be jealous because he hasn’t got a missile launcher on his roof.

‘Teddy Bears Picnic Banned From Olympics’, 27 July – 16 August, West End Arcade shop fronts. Free. For more info see mclympics.wordpress.com