News

Badger and the pick of the pops

Published

9 years ago

February 26, 2015

OVER the last couple of weeks, even by his own benighted standards, Badger has been a gloomy soul. However, readers, this week Badger resolved to strike an altogether lighter and less sombre note; with what is, admittedly, variable success.

As Badger was listening to the wireless the other day he slipped back into a time warp. There he was, Tony Blackburn, who sounded as gruesomely cheery as Badger remembered from his childhood. Tone was playing the top twenty selling singles from 1985. At that time it took significant sales to get into the top twenty, let alone the top ten, and it was not uncommon for singles to sell in the hundreds of thousands.

For those of Badger’s readers who are not familiar with the concept, a swift history lesson is in order. In a world before CD’s, and long before downloads, the purchase of seven inch disks of vinyl to be played on a Hi-fi turntable – or even, if one was lucky enough, a music centre. In fact, music centres gave one the option of just recording the top forty and adeptly editing out the disc jockey banter between records: particularly useful for avoiding Bruno Brookes.

Anyway, Badger digresses. There Badger was, back in 1985, with Tony Blackburn doing the top twenty-selling singles of the year.

1985: The year of The Smiths, The Cult, The Cure, The Style Council, Bruce Springsteen, Prince. Badger settled down for a treat.

Oh dear, readers, oh dearie, dearie, dearie me.

Badger listened aghast.

Apparently, when Morrisey sang the lyrics ‘the devil will find work for idle hands to do’, the thing the devil found for idle hands to do was to buy singles perpetrated by Jennifer Rush, Barbara Dickson & Elaine Paige, and Foreigner.

Asbestos-lunged American power-ballad diva, Jennifer Rush bellowed The Power of Love to five weeks at the top of the chart in October. As Badger discovered to his horror when researching this article – La Rush had recorded the UK’s best-selling single by a solo female artist until overtaken by something equally interminable by Whitney Houston several years later.

Memory, not the most reliable of mediums at the best of times, had somehow preserved for Badger the memory of Walls Come Tumbling Down, Between the Wars, and Close to Me, but erased Easy Lover, and the knuckle-whitening horror of Frankie.

Now, Badger is many things but he is no musical elitist. He can be found a-shuffling his paws along to tunes – if you excuse the pun – of any stripe. But the discovery of precisely what had been a hit when the world was young and green came as a mortifying surprise to Badger. 1985 was no golden age of popular music, it was an age right up there with the horror of times when young girls chanted for the Bay City Rollers or David Cassidy.

Readers, it was an age of Phil Collins.

Phil-bloody-Collins. I mean it is not as if Genesis was not quite bad enough, Phil had to distil its essence, cube it and record it. Those are not only musical crimes, readers: they are crimes against humanity. Phil Collins constitutes the final proof of the proposition that the only band in which the drummer was the most talented member was Nirvana.

And it came to Badger that much of the mid-80’s had been erased from Badger’s mind by a combination of Phil Collins and Margaret Thatcher. Shaken by the sheer awfulness of the period, musically and politically, Badger had expunged its recollection and retained only the memory of little shafts of light to illuminate the gloom.

On reflection, the whole period from, say, 1982 to the end of 1990 seems a little hazy. Not so much never glad confident morning again, as an abrupt break in cultural transmission that only picked up again a long time later. Lager and despair might have had something to do with that, readers.

But still Tony Blackburn endures: we are now past post-modern irony – way past Smashy and Nicey territory -and into the realms of complicity.

We know he is corny, we know he has hung around longer than a fart in a freezer, but Tony Blackburn is a reminder to us of a time when what went to the top of the charts had a certain cultural currency.

Popular music is less a sign of our times than a diary marker in our memories. If pressed to remember a specific day or month, you might fail. But people always remember what they were doing when they first became aware of a certain song, or a certain artist.

The old joke about innumerable progeny being conceived to the melodic rumbling of Barry White probably has a certain ring of truth about it; although in Pembrokeshire in the 1980’s, Badger is pretty sure that it was more likely to be to the strains of Hi Ho Silver Lining leeching through the windows of the village hall into a darkened car park at the end of a disco. Or possibly to the apparently endless long version of Freebird if you ventured out to The Old Rectory near Nash of fond Badgery memories.

The truth about the eighties, is that like Auden’s 1930’s, they were a low, dishonest decade. Their altitude and dishonesty is worse than some and better than others. (Don’t get Badger started on the 1970’s and the type of modern comedian who asks the audience whether it remembers Spangles.)

For all the gleaming newness of the now, and in the knowledge of its gloomier corners, the past still has its pull. Even now, even after Badger has discovered the unfortunate musical truth about 1985, his memory insists that for the portion of the year that Little Red Corvette was not number one, She Sells Sanctuary was in its stead.The thing about nostalgia, readers, is that nothing can kill it. Not even the truth.

Community

Public reminded to stay away from Ward’s Yard and Criterion Quay

Published

15 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THE PORT of Milford Haven is reminding members of the public to stay away from Ward’s Yard in Milford Haven and Criterion Quay (sometimes known as the offshore jetty) in Pembroke Dock due to concerns over public safety. 

Despite significant security measures, people continue to access the sites illegally, ignoring and sometimes damaging the onsite signage and fences.

Niall Yeomans, Head of Health, Safety and Security at the Port of Milford Haven said: “Safety is our key priority. Members of the public are continuously putting themselves and members of our team at risk of serious harm by trespassing in these areas.”

“Both Ward’s Yard and Criterion Quay are unsafe for public access. They are isolated areas next to deep water and are susceptible to slips, trips and falls.”

Both sites are owned by the Port of Milford Haven and are private property. Anyone found onsite without consent is trespassing, and any criminal damage could result in prosecution.  

Anyone who sees any suspicious activity at Ward’s Yard or Criterion Quay is asked to contact Dyfed Powys Police on 101 urgently.

Crime

‘Sophisticated’ organised crime gang trafficked cocaine and cannabis to Aberystwyth

Published

17 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Tom Sinclair

FIVE people have been found guilty or admitted to conspiring to supply cocaine and cannabis as Dyfed-Powys Police continues its efforts to dismantle organised crime gangs.

Officers seized cocaine with a street value of more than £400,000 from gang members, who continually changed tactics to avoid arrest.

Six defendants have appeared in court in the latest phase of Dyfed-Powys Police’s Operation Burleigh, which sought to disrupt the trafficking and onward supply of class A and B drugs into Aberystwyth, with all but one admitting their charges or being found guilty by a jury.

This brings the total number of people awaiting sentence under the operation to 15.

The court heard that officers from Dyfed-Powys Police’s Serious and Organised Crime Team and Ceredigion Priority Policing Team led the investigation into the OCG, which was described as ‘sophisticated, well-organised and evolving’.

Detective Sergeant Steven Jones said: “This conspiracy operated on a County Lines model, where controlled drugs are trafficked into a smaller rural town from a larger city, and the operation is controlled by one or more ‘drugs lines’.

“In this case there were a total of four lines controlling the supply of cocaine and cannabis within Aberystwyth.

“The conspirators frequently evolved their actions to frustrate the authorities and evade capture.”

The OCG embedded members were mainly asylum seekers brought to Aberystwyth by Toana Ahmad and another man who remains outstanding, with the sole purpose of dealing drugs. The drug lines were initially based in Swansea, and later in areas of Birmingham.

Three properties – on Terrace Road, Alexander Road and Parc Graig Glas – were identified early in the investigation as being used to house the OCG members embedded in Aberystwyth. Substantial amounts of cash, controlled drugs and weapons were recovered from these properties, and from the people found inside.

When arrests were made, the gang changed its tactics. Drugs began to be supplied from vehicles, and OCG members stayed in guest houses to avoid detection.

DS Jones added: “Trusted couriers were employed to transport drugs to Aberystwyth and cash back to Birmingham or Swansea. A number of vehicles, including taxis, were used as the gang attempted to avoid detection along the route, while trains were also taken when courier cars were stopped by officers.”

In June 2023, two vehicles travelling from the West Midlands towards Aberystwyth were stopped by police on consecutive days. A black sock was uncovered in the engine of the first car, which was found to contain 82g of high purity cocaine divided into 169 grip seal plastic bags.

Davinder Singh, who previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A and class B drugs, was the driver of the second vehicle, which was a taxi. A blue plastic bag was seen falling out of his shorts, which contained over 81g of high purity cocaine divided into 167 grip seal bags.

DS Jones said: “On the basis that the amounts of cocaine transported over the 37 couriers over the course of the conspiracy period were similar, over 3kg of cocaine would have been conveyed to Aberystwyth from Birmingham.

“This equates to class A drugs with a potential street value of over £308,950. In addition to this, class A drugs were seized from individuals and addresses with a potential street value of £103,445, along with cash totalling £11,687.

“A number of teams and departments across Dyfed-Powys Police, from analysts, CCTV operators and priority policing teams, to CAB, the Technical Support Unit, Economic Crime Team and Force Intelligence Bureau all assisted in dismantling the OCG from top to bottom.

“Their dedication and relentless efforts have assisted in making Aberystwyth a safer place to live without the threat and harm of drugs being made easily available on the street.”

After a seven-week trial at Swansea Crown Court earlier this year, the following three defendants were found guilty for their parts in the conspiracy:

Toana Ahmad, aged 33, of Lee Gardens in Smethwich, West Midlands
Barzan Sarhan, aged 31, of no fixed address
Ahmed Piro, aged 26, of no fixed address

The jury failed to reach a verdict on two defendants during the earlier trial. They have been subject to a retrial starting on July 1, with the following outcomes:

Hawre Ahmed, aged 35, of Pinderfields Road, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, was found guilty by the jury of conspiracy to supply Class A and B controlled drugs.
Diar Yousef Zeabari, aged 35, of Flat 5, 41 Bryn Road, Swansea, was found not guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A and B controlled drugs.

Karwan Karim, aged 39 of 125 Griffith John Street, Swansea, also stood trial, and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A and B controlled drugs on day three.

In addition to the OCG members found guilty during the most recent trials, the following have previously pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to supply class A and class B drugs under Operation Burleigh:

Davinder Singh, aged 36, of Huntingdon Road, West Bromwich
Daban Khalil, aged 23, of Streetly Road, Birmingham
Kastro Omar, aged 30, of Junction Road, Northampton
Karwan Jabari, aged 26, of Weedon Close, Northampton
Walid Younis Abdal, aged 34, of St Anne’s Road, Doncaster
Saman Aziz, aged 41, of Kirk Road, Merseyside
Adel Mustafa, aged 39, of Hubert Road, Newport
Charlotte Roberts, aged 21, of Sutton Hill, Telford

The following have previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs:

Akasha Smith, aged 24, of Third Avenue, Aberystwyth
Luqman Jarjis, aged 21, of Wake Green Road, Birmingham

News

Community asked for views on allocation of new St Davids homes

Published

17 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THE FIRST phase of Pembrokeshire County Council’s Glasfryn housing development in St Davids is progressing well with the second phase also underway.

The development being built by GRD Homes Ltd, began in November 2023, with a first phase completion date of Winter 2024 looking hopeful, ahead of the scheduled plans.

The first phase consists of seven properties, including a mixture of one and two bedroom bungalows

As completion draws closer the properties will be advertised via Pembrokeshire Choice Homes.

Ahead of this, the Council’s housing team will be holding community engagement on the 13th August 2024 at the Ty’r Pererin Centres, Quickwell Hill, St Davids, SA62 6PD, 5pm-7pm.

This will be a chance for officers to liaise with the local community about the allocation process for these properties.

Glasfryn’s second phase is well underway, with the initial groundwork already completed. This phase includes a further 11 two bedroom bungalows, with a completion date in late 2025.

These bungalows will meet the latest Welsh Government’s Development Quality Requirement, and will be energy efficient, built to EPC A specification and include solar panels to help tenants with running costs.

The Glasfryn development is funded in partnership with Welsh Government.

Cabinet Member for Housing Cllr Michelle Bateman said: “We are really keen to work with the community on a local lettings policy for these new properties, as we have done for our developments in other parts of the County.”

If you have any queries please email the Customer Liaison Team on [email protected], phone them on 01437 764551, or visit Housing’s Facebook page.