Pete Quaife - In memory.

Peter Alexander Greenlaw "Pete" Quaife

Born: 31 December 1943

Left this earth: 23 June 2010

One of the founding members of The Kinks along with Dave Davies and Ray Davies, Pete's unmistakable bass playing gave the band their distinctive sound. I cannot describe how sad I felt when I read the news about Pete's passing, even though death is certainly not the end. I suppose I feel extremely sad for those that knew and loved Pete, including Dave, who describes his disbelief and pain at this news on his website. Yet Pete has been part of a musical legacy that will never be forgotten, and in this way he will always remain immortal. I'll find a way to remember Pete, but for now I simply pray for his soul and for his family and friends in this time of personal loss and sadness. - KF

Read Dave Davies' beautiful tribute to his friend, brother, bandmate for MOJO here.

Ruthie the orangutan, Glenn Gould and animals

"I'd be delighted to have you make use of the Bach C Major Prelude and Fugue in your film. As it happens, animal welfare is one of the great passions of my life, and if you'd asked to use my entire recorded output in support of such a cause, I couldn't possibly have refused." 

- Glenn Gould

This is Ruthie. Ruthie is an orangutan I adopted a couple of weeks ago from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. You might have noticed that I haven't written anything in the last three weeks. That is because as with everything in life, when things start to go wrong, they go wrong all at once! As Pete Campbell says in Mad Men, "why don't all the good things happen to me at once" - that's never the case, Pete! Anyway, so the last few weeks have been something out of a bad movie...or as someone I know observed, more like a horror movie. There was a moment where I felt like I was stuck in some sort of strange time warp, and then along came Ruthie. The older I get, the less time and energy I seem to have for people, but I've already written about that before. This May, my faith in human nature hit an all time low (yes - again) and I felt so upset and infuriated that I had wasted so many years on people who have so little class or courtesy. But we are all human - as a human being I've done things I'm not proud of, so I guess I must accept that everyone is capable of behaving in a certain way, irrespective of what that means for the people around them.

MusiCounts and the case for an inclusive system of music education

Learning a musical instrument in the western classical style has traditionally been a pastime or hobby for middle class or upper middle class children. Going way back to the classical era of Haydn and Mozart, right through the 19th Century, playing the piano, violin or even studying voice was something most parents encouraged their children to do whether they had the aptitude and talent for it or not. As a result, there were plenty of employment opportunities for trained and gifted musicians, because suddenly it seemed as though every moderately well off household had a piano, and the sale of sheet music composed and written for children and amateurs also thrived.