COME, ONE AND ALL to the Idler Party taking place this Wednesday, 11 October, at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club.
We’re putting on a fantastic ukulele extravaganza with the first ever gig of the Idler Ukulele Orchestra, starring John Moore, Louis Eliot, Hannah Griffiths, Paul Hamilton, Mathew Clayton and Tom Hodgkinson.
Entertainment will also come from the fabulous Wave Pictures and Matthew Sawyer, PLUS the amazing Dulwich Ukulele Club.
We’re celebrating the launch of our new Green Man issue and copies will be on sale at discount rates. You’ll also be able to buy your own ukulele to take home.
Tickets are a mere �5, doors open at 8pm and the address is as follows:
44-46 Pollard Row, London E2 6NB. 55 bus or Bethnal Green tube.
Today sees the publication of Tom Hodgkinson’s new manifesto for a merry revolution, How To Be Free, which you can order for only �8.99 (RRP �14.99) from Amazon. Today also sees the publication of the brand new Idler. It’s our Green Man issue and tells you “How To Save The World Without Really Trying”. There’s a beautiful cover drawn by Anthony Haythornthwaite, and an essay by Gaia scientist Stephan Harding which outlines the theory of why cultivating the art of doing nothing is precisely what the planet now needs. We need to leave it alone. It is the excessive interfering and “doing” that has caused the problems. We’ve also got a piece by Richard Benson, author of The Farm, on his efforts to create a wild flower meadow AND a splendid 22 page Ukulele Special. Our celebration of the punkest and idlest of all instruments tells you all you need to know: how to buy it, the history of the uke, all the main chords and further resources. PLUS there’s a competition with a uke and bag with �200 as prize, courtesy of quality ukulele emporium the Duke of Uke in London’s Hanbury Street. It’s full of fun and ideas and bursting with life. Order it here from Amazon.
The Stylish Kids in the Riot: Will and Victor from Circulus, Paul Hamilton, Tom Hodgkinson and Dan Kieran. Photo by John Moore
On Monday 2 October a motley, raggle-taggle and very merry crew met at the statue of John Wilkes in New Fetter Lane for a short meander through Holborn to Clerkenwell Green. It was a Liberty March to celebrate the publication of Idler Ed Tom’s new book, How To Be Free. Tom recited Blake’s poem “London” through the megaphone while Michael Tyack, Will and Victor Hugo of Circulus rocked the medieval beats on the lute, pipe and drum. At the Old Sessions House we drank Fuller’s London Pride, drank red wine, ate ham and bread and made merry. So merry that we were asked to keep the noise down by the masons who were holding a big dinner in the room across the hall.
To mark the launch of How To Be Free, Idler ed Tom Hodgkinson is holding a Liberty March today. Come and meet at 6pm at the statue of John Wilkes in Fetter Lane, off Fleet Street. We will meander through old London until we arrive at the Old Sessions House, Clerkenwell Green, where mirth, merriment,
medieval vibes and hundreds of pints of free London Pride will await. If you can’t make the march, then proceed directly to the Old Sessions House, any time from 7pm till 10pm.
"The answer to how to live is to stop thinking about it. And just to live. But you're doing that anyway. However you intellectualise it, you still just live."