He ‘s a classical pianist of some considerable repute. He was educated at Harrow. And suddenly he got angry after visiting a state school in Hertfordshire where all that the funds available allowed for the brilliant teacher and his passionate, wannabee-musical pupils were dustbins, margarine tins, chocolate boxes used as instruments, a cello that looked as though it had been used as firewood and a couple of mangled , unplayable trumpets.
James got angry in the Spectator, regarded as the Tory magazine. I hope a few Cabinet Ministers therefore noticed it. If not read on …..
“How many Adeles, Ashkenazys, Rattles or Elton Johns are we missing out on simply because they haven’t the opportunity to explore music making? Perhaps more importantly, regardless of future commercial success, how many young creative minds are the government stifling out of laziness, vote-chasing and misplaced priorities? Another one of the arts is biting the dust. In the age of entitlement and instant fame that is so encouraged and idealised by “The X Factor” and its ilk, at a time where the record companies won’t give you a second glance unless you’ve 20,000 Twitter followers, a million YouTube hits and an album already written and produced, someone felt it a worthy idea to treat music education as an extravagance rather than a basic right. If that doesn’t change, the impact cannot fail to be far-reaching and long-lasting.”
Of course you don’t need the facilities they have at Harrow to become a great pianist, painter or writer. But to get a start in life you need some encouragement. At least you need to be treated reasonably seriously.
Recently I saw the Strindberg play “Playing with Fire” at the Drayton Arms in Kensington, translated and directed by Anna Ostergren, with an audience capacity of 40. It was a production on a shoestring which was utterly compelling. I wept for joy at the talent. I wept in sorrow that it would give the government more ammunition to say “look – you don’t need money to create brilliance”.
What James Rhodes does next will be telling. He says governments are lazy, vote-catching and have misplaced priorities. Well yes James. That sounds like most of us. It probably applies to you…confess it. You want applause (your equivalent of votes) and if you don’t get it I bet you’ll be harder working and that you’ll realign your priorities.
What is needed is a non-stop consistent, good humoured attack on politicians of all persuasions so they begin to worry that they’ll lose attention or votes unless they address our concerns. If we don’t give all our children the “basic right” to a decent opportunity to play, paint or perform then we are not just being wicked we are also being stupid.
And we all know being perceived as stupid means lost votes.
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