Skip to main content

tv   Going Underground  RT  August 19, 2017 4:29am-5:01am EDT

4:29 am
delayed and. tense here we're going on the ground as president will trump arrives in israel to meet prime minister binyamin netanyahu coming up with a sure rave against the machine we speak to an author and musician his music has sold millions about the political power of music and fifty is a pink floyd the creative director behind the world famous rock bands iconic album art how music can be used to fight the power plus we uncover the stories that fell between the cracks in this week's barry news all the civil coming up a debate is going underground but first leaders of the iraqi energy industry convene in london today to discuss all island gas strategy well we certainly know
4:30 am
what u.s. president donald trump thinks of the fourth largest producer of oil to russia saudi arabia and the united states old expression to the victor belong the spoils you remember you always used to say keep the oil i wasn't a fan of iraq i don't want to go into iraq. but i will tell you when we were in we got out wrong we said in addition to that keep the law now i said for economic reasons but if you think about it if we kept you know you probably wouldn't have isis because that's where they made their money in the first place so we should keep the oil but ok. maybe we'll have another chance donald trump there raising eyebrows at cia headquarters as he appears to say the united states should replace isis is the enemy of the iraqi government this was the response of iraqi prime minister hey there are a lobby i think mr trump is a problem i think he's a prisoner. he would look at this tradition. iraq all he sold by iraq is not take being taken over by iran or not not any anybody else there are people not that i
4:31 am
want the country to take possession of their own resources so who's been doing the possessing of iraq e resources as far back as twenty eleven here and iraq the region of kurdistan the word is out it's on mobile it's coming. the billions of barrels that lay beneath this specific area are already being drilled by a smaller american competitor. but now exxon mobil has signed its own deal with the kurds to explore for more oil in the kurdish autonomous region of iraq well we know who used to run exxon mobil none other than president trump secretary of state rex tillerson. in the past twenty four hours u.s. president trump fresh from his dinner with israeli prime minister binyamin netanyahu and his wife met with palestinian leader president abbas from gil scott heron to snoop dog officers from all around the world though have refused to play
4:32 am
in the occupied territories of israel but from the anti-apartheid struggle in south africa to the cultural b.d.s. movement for palestine what is the nature of the political power of music recently we caught up with dave randall a musician who has played with acts such as faithless and dido selling millions of records. his latest releases a book sound system the political power of music david welcome to going underground why do you think it is that mainstream media narratives promote the idea that music is merely entertainment and that despite would ruelas as you call them in this book believed that music cannot change the world. well i think there are several parts to the answer i mean i think in general the political power of culture ease on the plate by those we weave palla. and. i think what i try to discuss in the book is the fact that the political power of culture has been understood by rulers throughout the whole of history and indeed
4:33 am
across all cultures. often they would see as being in their interests to keep or to keep quiet really this political power the more that we are passive consumers of culture the better from their point of view i think. on the other hand the more that we actively partake in culture and the more that we engage politically through culture the better i think the better placed we will be to make sure that culture serves are us the many rather than just the few you talk about the dixie chicks and how the response by other artists to their opposition to the iraq war. without presumably the cia anywhere near this image of madonna immediately reshooting a video that could be construed as an iraq war after the hatred for the dixie chicks with their opposition will self censorship be something that crops up a lot for the cia or so well. i mean it's interesting because there's
4:34 am
a long history of certain artists being targeted by those in power and made an example of in the hope that others will indeed self sense and you're absolutely right that's what happened when the dixie chicks expressed this solidarity with the antiwar protests against the iraq war in two thousand and three they did so while on stage at the shepherds bush empire here in london when they did that. that was really i mean the audience applauded but when when that into them was reported in america they ended up paying a huge commercial cost you know the record sales plummeted concerts were canceled and you're absolutely right that led other artists including madonna to suddenly abstain from political comment and i think that's a real problem on the up side of things though if we just go back briefly you know the response by different parts of the music industry too was busy we deserve flirtations with fascism by eric clapton road steward and david bowie was the great
4:35 am
grogan's raises of movement here in britain yes i think the most important thing for people to know about that period because i'm just a little bit too young to remember it for myself and i think that what's fascinating to know is that popular culture was on a knife h. you had punks flirting with the symbols of the far right the swastika and so on you had eyes you say eric clapton making these outrageous racist comments on stage at the birmingham odeon you have bowie sort of saying that again probably drunk or high but nonetheless saying some really dangerous provocative things i think he said that he conceded that to be the world's first rock star. and there was a real tangible sense the popular culture could have become quite racist quite right wing quite nasty but because of that conscious political intervention by left
4:36 am
wing activists rock against racism in actual fact the opposite happened anti racism became common sense really for a generation or so so it's incredibly important example and firmly one by moaning leave then rise of ninety's electronic dance music you say it's actually a perfect. call real context to understand the new liberal revolution or the increasingly liberalism when it comes to alienation yeah yeah. it takes me a while to arrive at that conclusion in the book but you're absolutely right i i trace the fact that the roots of dance music are with people who have been excluded from mainstream society by prejudice so people who've been excluded because of racism homophobia perhaps transphobia in cities like chicago detroit in new york and therefore they were using music to build a new sense of community and precisely the same things started to happen
4:37 am
a decade or or or a little bit more later in britain huge numbers of working class british young people started to place music at the center of their new attempt to forge a sense of community precisely the time that factor was telling them that there was no such thing as society precise in the time policies was shattering working class communities so yes i think it was a response to feelings of alienation and when it comes to how music is change and analysis of these different ideas you. are talking about a wonderful list is not a revolutionary music in and how different it is from in particular you mention and there's of course ally because they appropriated some of their dance music madonna lady gaga and get only the worst way of those three particular images. in all sending well i don't i think it's important for me to be clear i'm not saying there in all thing to what i am saying and what i talk about throughout the book is this
4:38 am
idea that this idea that was first put forward in detail by theodore door no the the great german intellectual he wrote a number of very influential essays in the one nine hundred forty s. and his line essentially was that popular music was always going to keep us down the popular music was deployed by routers as a weapon of mass distraction essentially. and i don't agree with him i think that all of culture is contested but when i when i when i speak about those artists it's in a context where whereby i'm saying yes it's easy to think that we don't know got it right it's easy to think that while we're you know talking about lady gaga his latest fashion statement or speculating about kanye west mental health or whatever that actually the stuff of politics is going on behind our backs and it's not going well for us it's not going well for terry people but we are indeed being distracted
4:39 am
. but then i go on to talk about beyonce and black lives and i hear one could always say the beyond there is reading their door no and that's why the black panthers were there in that celebrated superball only or we will examine it acker no i don't know it i don't i have to respectfully disagree i encourage you to go back i don't attack what i do say is that a lot of the conversation around that performance of formation at the super bowl. focuses on her motives is she being opportunistic or does she mean it what i argue is that her motives are not the real story they're not the real point the real point is that for whatever reasons she has decided to get political at that time april twenty sixth thing why and the answer that i gave is that the movement of the streets the black lives matter movement had created such momentum
4:40 am
that even somebody as as huge and as wealthy and so on is beyond say decided to to to reference it and i think that when she referenced it that was useful i think that was useful for the black eyes met a movement but elsewhere in the music scene it was pop idol with masses of all around the world in its many franchises you think it is symptomatic of the sort of corporate new liberal corruption of music that when air i mean i sort of ass here no that's true that is true i vacillated on this question for some time actually because i recognize that there are examples for exam dangers for a musician like you to attack salmon colored thing going well i don't think so i'm a cow has much interest in me on the question of x. factor and pop idol and all these sorts of shore girl moxon's or the mark of ages. yes i mean. more referring to racism and sexism in the music industry with pop idol
4:41 am
i think that as i say i vacillated because you do get the cajuns such as the victory of muhammad s.f. from gaza on arab idol and that was a great moment for lots of palestinians a moment of celebration so for a moment i thought well maybe this is a way in which. artists can get through artists who wouldn't have been let through by the traditional gatekeepers of the music industry but then i changed my mind i thought actually. if you look at the format of the shows this fetishizing nation of competition whoever wins it's the same be companies who get richer because you have to sign an exclusive deal with those companies. and you know this kind of pseudo democracy we get to vote actually how we vote is very much determined by the opinions of an unelected panel of experts and so actually i conclude that these shows mirror some of the worst aspects of the capitalist system as a whole and just finally in terms of music as
4:42 am
a weapon many people are going underground team want to be there because grime is something that britain. should be proud of you know easily. the is the international music industry going to corporate themes used in growing which is now an international phenomenon as unusual new music well they certainly will co-opt certain artists but i think that the important thing about grime for me i mean aside from being very exciting musically the important thing is that it talks about the real lived experience of everyday people of ordinary people. in particular talks about the experiences of growing up in particular parts of south london near where i live you are starting to see this not only in who i am but also also artists like kate tempest you've got coming out of notting in the sleeve you've got a number of artists who are starting to talk about the unvarnished reality of life
4:43 am
for ordinary people i welcome that i think that's an exciting development but yeah of course the mainstream music industry will try to steer it in a different direction in a less meaningful direction as i say culture is always constantly contested in those ways david randall thank you thank you. after the break from the dark side of the moon pink floyd's. roger waters is continue to sing truth to power hundred deadly superbugs on moments transport systems to three hundred thousand unaccompanied children looking to safety around the world we go underground to the news buried by the mainstream media older some more coming over but two of going underground. here's what people have been saying about rejected in the senate it's full on
4:44 am
awesome the only show i go out of my way to launch you know what it is that really packs a punch oh yeah it is the john oliver of r t america is doing the same we are apparently better than two thousand and six and see people you've never heard of love redacted tonight not the president of the world bank so he doesn't really mean it seriously send us an e-mail. now if chang's that's a seventy billion dollars potential loss and you point out it's mostly private investors which would include let's say goldman sachs and others but if these folks like a goldman sachs suffer any losses at all remember they banking on the government for a bailout so they could go to the government and say blew up we need to bail out the government because it's staffed by goldman sachs employees mostly tromp yet they would rubber stamp that bailout and then to pay for the bailout they'd have to go into people's attention accounts and they have to grab that money or wells fargo
4:45 am
and go into your personal account and grab that money. that you want or you know listen no good morning in one million. even. now no one's from tulane if you think he's wrong in that sense.
4:46 am
welcome back this week sandy major protest in brussels is unlikely to be mentioned much in the mainstream media but one of the stories of being lost in the wedding of someone called pippa middleton trump again bombing syrian forces fighting isis diana and the attempts to capture julian it's he was going underground deputy had to just about impact the reporting on some of this week's buried news. in a week saturated with leaks and absolutely soaked in news we bring you the stories that hold more water than watergate where as richard nixon got into trouble for trying to read other people's documents the current commander in chief donald trump is reportedly only interested in government documents if they feature his name but
4:47 am
one of the documents that may have slipped from his mind ahead of his foreign visit is president it's one here during appearance on the very fair fox and friends i'm going to one of the world trade center it wasn't iraqis it was shorter you have to take a look at saudi arabia documents hops in an attempt to put those comments behind him trumps hired country star toby keith to perform a male only concert for his trip to saudi arabia this in a country not content with air strikes in yemen so far back the dark ages that nineteen million people face famine it's even now being alleged that they are bombing their own people the eastern town of our mia that just so happens to be in the oil rich region of the teeth has seen saudi gunfire shelling and demolition of homes reportedly resulted in the death of a two year old child children are also in peril as they flee other u.k. u.s. backed conflicts in the middle east the u.n. reporting that the number of unaccompanied child refugees globally has increased
4:48 am
five fold since two thousand and ten that's three hundred thousand children looking for asylum and searching for safety around the world but as refugees fight for home political candidates in the u.k. are vying for one hundred room house in one of the u.k.'s most expensive neighborhoods number ten downing street for a while to raise them a break sit down to i was dancing queen jeremy cool been sparked interest in the growing community sitting down for a nice meagen brunch with j m e all rappers like novelists of color and students have also backed the labor leader. only while the world recovers from one of the worst computer virus attacks in history a study has revealed that nine of the world were asked antibiotic resistant super bugs can be found on london's transport system that's why it's always a risk when we go underground. deputy editor sebastian back in their own covering the buried news half a century ago today pink floyd were celebrating the recording of their debut album
4:49 am
since then pink floyd has become one of the world's most politically outspoken rock bands lead singer roger waters advocates for palestinian rights and fought for military whistleblower chelsea manning freed last week here in london pink floyd's records videos and live shows have been preserved in exhibition at london's victoria and albert museum called their mortal remains it runs from now until october to go behind the scenes here is going underground senior producer pete bennett with pink floyd's creative director and the man behind the band's most iconic album or. rock n roll hall of fame is pink floyd one of the most successful exports of all time six number one albums in over two hundred fifty billion cells worldwide they shifted more units david spears combined celebrated the early originators of progressive rock they've won grammys back and produce
4:50 am
a religious cult film pink floyd the wall missing out to eat in the box office charts the scale of the groundbreaking live performances of legendary they're one of the first bands to travel with a dedicated light shard with a forty foot long inflatable pig cool algae and short paper sheet from cannons into the crowd symbolizing political exploitation and oppression deep rooted in their music the band really cool to see splits even the boy caught by the then apartheid government south africa. so to commemorate fifty years of pink floyd london's v.n.a. museum is holding an audio visual journey in tights with the pink floyd exhibition mills remains i went to speak to the band's cultural director co-founder of the design company hypnosis and the man behind some of the most iconic album time ovi power i began by asking him how he saw it become landmarks in the political landscape that day. yes i think the album cover was very representation of the
4:51 am
political landscape of the time when you were there for the animals we look at the period politically there was a lot of upheaval there was a lot of he will politically around the world and i think roger waters tapped into the fact of george orwell with animal farm and tried to make that correlation between us and then politically the working classes and the ruling classes and tried to say something which he always did all his albums had that if you look at the wall for example you know he's talking specifically about the depression not only globally between countries and philosophies and diktats he's also talking about the emotional wall exists between people people on the able to express themselves and i think roger always discusses these more intelligent cerebral issues and he also certainly writes them into the lyrics and into the
4:52 am
foundations of each concept of each album for mental health and the dark side of the me to rebelling against the system on the wall each album serves as a reminder of floyd's social commentary with the pig flying over battersea power station in one thousand nine hundred eighty seven animals i wanted to know the story behind a building that was once a symbol of industry becoming a symbol for inequality and how we felt about the building he wants a more to life to be converted into luxury flats during the housing crisis when roger waters first suggested. would be that he wanted to fly a pig of a basset past nor would i be the creative director of that event the past ation was still working it was still an operating working class blue color environment and it represented to him something that was incredibly submissive you know put down the same time represented this enormous building that was
4:53 am
a piece of wonderful brick built architecture beautiful and i think now when i look at it and i see what they're doing to it i'm deeply sad i was at that the other day standing on the roof actually by one of the chimneys which is quite daunting and all around me there were blocks of new flats being built being come to see this wonderful view and actually depressed me because in a way when i took that photograph i had the best of it i had the best view of it and roger's conception was at the best time you know and massive power station was dying at that point because they realized in the late seventy's that that sort of industrial. you know smoke laden coal burning. factory if you like was obsolete it was killing people with small good stuff like that and had to be closed down so you will says his license northcote sects just.
4:54 am
use his pig to cover the front chicago strong towers in an act of protest will dissipate he the pagan was a very. business fresh new used in the sixty's and seventy's during the revolutionary times. when student riots were going all men citizens in universities were happening kent state in america all this sort of thing and roger was a symbol of the page was represented actually by police the. lisa you know one used to call the police the pigs so big paid coming out of a stadium where the police in america would be busting people for drugs or hitting people in the head with with truncheons or whatever you know there were those are people at that time and i see this the symbol of the pig represented all thoresby and was to be thrown into the crowd and over the crowd to be torn to pieces and
4:55 am
that's how roger waters still uses his wall shows today so when you get that symbol of the pig being put in front of trump tower in america to me it's a giving the big finger saying. you know when i haven't met a rodgers farias outspoken. and i think another example of that is to do with the war is very interesting trump if you pursue a child you'll see and then look back a few months when he was campaigning he actually said i'm going to build a wall between mexico and america and i think this is just like a red rag to a bull with roger waters smith pacifically when he has a strong political view and finally from the wall that will separate united states and mexico to the wall in the west bank how is it that artists today struggling see commit see movements like roger waters has when it come see supporting sanctions
4:56 am
against israel over their treatment of palestinians when i look back i think floyd's history and it goes right back to the early years when i can remember that during a free concert for the communist collar workers in paris during the paris riots i don't know sixty seven sixty eight. they've always been a political animal and i think that that will continue in a sense of what saddens me about a lot of today's musical styles is there's none of that aggressive politico. they have the opportunity on the platform. to make another perhaps one doesn't want in the streets no longer wish to have kent state university three revisits nevertheless much more protests could be made. use of the music and visuals to express that. should be put forward.
4:57 am
that doesn't exist and why we are in difficult political climate. as far as i'm concerned music the streets of the people in the street. hope you enjoyed that requested favorite show from the latest season of going underground will be back with another great season of going underground on saturday the second of september but till then keep in touch via social media will still be reading lol your communication with the team. in case you're new to the game this is how. the economy is built around. washington. business to run this country business. it's not business as usual it's
4:58 am
business like it's never been done. isis militants have just chosen to patrol base on. his compound. enemy troop movements have been spotted on the pulse of the rhythm. here in the relief to troops of militants have joined forces. those groups leaders have to clear their determination to fight for an independent islamic state in the philippines. even after two months of funds. keeps finding hidden weapons and explosives. in areas where civilians used to live on a daily occurrence. not implementing walk with the bundle but no. noise. is
4:59 am
a visitor to the. walking dead. unbelievable and it will make space now from miami for the fishers though says he doesn't. employ keighley will place cause they police a key to keep. proper . ha ha. with their. ball club with such. a failing sure i don't you think.
5:00 am
police in finland confirm the last they're now investigating friday stopping an attack in which two people died as terrorism an eighteen year old moroccan suspect is in custody. i and the other headlines a softer new city on edge this. as people come to terms with the terror a tragedy that left fourteen dead with a killer still at large. white house loses yet another key figure now chief strategist steve bannon is out in a move there's a victory.

36 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on