Moseley Folk Festival

MECCA BRUM
Birmingham UK is becoming so 'right on' since we first arrived here in 1990 it's in danger of disappearing up its own - well I'll leave that last word to your imagination.

FESTIVAL OF ENCHANTMENT
This is us just arriving at the annual Moseley Folk Festival two weeks' ago. It had an amazing line up, as it does every year, including 'Guillemots', 'Beth Jean Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny,'The Destroyers - Moseley being where the motley crew first joined forces in 2006; the magical Micky Greaney; a wonderful new discovery for us 'Goodnight Lennin', five talented lads who perform with a maturity that belies their youth; and on the Bohemian Stage we were wowed by 'Brother the Wolfe', who I am sure we will hear and see more and more of. Held in the enchanting Moseley Park by a beautiful lake bedecked with swans, as a venue alone it has a unique character that marks this festival out among the many held around the country throughout the summer. Undoubtedly for both of us though, the pinnacle of this occasion was when Julian Cope took to the main stage. After all these years he has still not lost his acerbic edge and 'cool' that give both his performance and work such dynamism.

SUNSPOTS
Laying in the sunshine - yes it actually came out for the festival - among the thousands of other festival goers, I contented myself at first with just listening to Cope, but had to stand in the end to get a proper look. I was shocked to discover that it was just him on the stage, holding his own, making such a glorious, riotous sound. Husband and I were wowed when he played 'Sunspots', we stood our ground and raved in joyousness as Cope played and sang on. It will certainly be a moment in our lives that we will always remember, to end this sentence with any further sentimentality would go against the general Cope ethos. No doubt he would laugh in our faces if we were ever fortunate enough to be able to tell him to his face how much it meant to us.

Against all the odds, I actually managed to take this picture, as I literally had sunspots in my eyes and couldn't see a thing. I just aimed and pressed, nothing to lose. And I didn't.

Here Cope is, standing to the right of the picture, in all his glory at 54 years of age, looking every bit the cool dude he always will be. To the left on his drum is written:'You can't beat your brain for entertainment.' Don't ask!

Rude Uncaring Policeman

Over 24 Hours Missing

Recently I had reason to telephone our local police to report my son missing. He'd been out all day and all night and didn't show up at college the next morning. This is out of character; despite everything, he usually has the good sense to inform us if he's staying with a friend for the night.

By the next day I was climbing the wall, and my imagination was going into overdrive - he lives in a big city where knife crime is a problem and he's a young man, so, vulnerable in many ways. Ringing around our local hospitals, husband and I were met with nothing but sympathy and assistance. The response from our local police however couldn't have been more different. In fact it was nothing short of a disaster.

Rude Policeman
The communication we had by front-line police-telephone was devoid of basic politeness, let alone anything close to emotional intelligence. I'm inclined to refer to the individual that took our call as PC Plod, and that is being polite I reckon. His tone was demeaning and patronising and he informed me that as my son had no ill-health, wasn't depressed and seemed to be in an equable mood when he left home, he was not to be categorised as a high-priority missing person and would be placed on 'hold'.

Verbal Tirade
I'm pleased to inform that son did eventually turn up, with some reasonable excuses, but I won't go down that route, just to say that he was safe and sound. When I rang Mr Plod back to inform him, I was greeted with a verbal tirade that went on for precisely 17 minutes. I know because we timed him. We put the mobile on the kitchen table, volume up and listened in mounting disbelief. Plod accused us of wasting police time, although all he'd done was spend five minutes taking a few details over the telephone. He lectured us on how the police investigated a missing person, itemising the lengths they went to. He also gave us some patronising advice: to inform our son that as he was living at home with us he should be living by our rules, seriously he said that.

A Bit Scary
It was a strange and slightly unnerving experience. When he eventually finished, husband and I just sat in a stunned silence. Mr Plod was after all meant to be delivering a service that we pay for through our council tax, and we didn't really know what to make of it. The man sounded deranged, unsafe even. And one more thing - if something awful had happened to our son, and we hadn't reported him missing, how would that have made us appear in the eyes of the law?

Tips
Anyway here's a few tips that we've learnt the hard way, none forthcoming from PC Plod I hasten to say, but may be of help for others to prevent the same from happening:

1 Stay abreast of any changes in your own contact details and get off-spring to memorise them. (We were remiss here due to a recent change in job.)

2 Give permission to have your number passed onto some of the more trusted friends of off-spring, should something happen to off-spring's mobile.

3 Ask for off-spring's friends' contact details and names of their friends. They rely so much on Facebook these days you have to make a point of 'catching' these. (We had no idea! Well he is 18.)

4 Check that land-line hasn't got a fault - ours had - and is functioning, even if it had been working earlier on; (don't you just love Virgin?)

5 Most importantly, keep telling your off-spring that you would really really miss them if they decide not to appear when you usually would expect them too!! (Apparently, there have been times when son has been in and we have failed to notice!)

From: The Stolen Child by WB Yeats
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

pleasenoxhere.tumblr.com MY SON'S STUFF