Britain is a country where old men say "Happy Birthday" to Joni Mitchell and remember a beach on Crete called Matala where they and she were young

In April 1967 Greece had been taken over by the Junta of Army Generals and in August I was travelling round the Greek islands with my 20 year old student friends, Kenny and Ann when we took a ferry to Crete and a bus to the seaside village of Matala. At the western side of the village beach a number of recesses had been carved out of the rock, it was said by the Minoans, thousands of years before and said the have acted as a convalescent hospital. They were now occupied by itinerant student backpackers like us. I remember that the best cave was occupied a big blond Dane who had been there for some time and could dive into the sea from his door step. I spent one night in a cave, but slept badly in a hard stone recess and the rest of our time there in our tent on the beach.

Was this really me in the sea at Matala 60 years ago ?

There were two restaurants on the beach. The one closest to the caves played a scratchy copy of Sergeant Pepper over and over again and was possibly the 'Dolphin Café'. The other was owned by, the always partially shaved, Leon and his wife Maria. Leon was not best pleased when we took an evening meal at the rival restaurant and to placate him I had to promise that, from that point on, we would take all meals with him. This pleased him greatly. He poured the wine and offered me a cigarette. From that point on, the quality of the food declined and on the last evening Leon served "Lamby" and that night Kenny was as sick as a dog which is not surprising since there are no sheep on Crete and we figured it was at best, goat, on our plates.

Three years later, in 1970 Joni Mitchell stayed at Matala, she was 27 years old and was inspired to write her song 'Carey' after 'Cary' or 'Carrot' Raditz, a cane-carrying chef with bright red hair, who she met there during her European Odyssey and referred to the village and Matala's now-defunct 'Dolphin Café' she called 'The Mermaid' Café'.

(LINK)

Now Carey is immortalised by Joni's words and music. Her other words and phrases immortalise her at that point in time : Link

 "My fingernails are filthy, I got beach tar on my feet,                                                       And I miss my clean white linen and my fancy French cologne."

 "Come on down to the Mermaid Cafe and I will buy you a bottle of wine.                         And we'll laugh and toast to nothing and smash our empty glasses down."     

 "But let's not talk about fare-thee-welIs now,                                                                                    The night is a starry dome.                                                                                                   And they're playin' that scratchy rock and roll,                                                      Beneath the Matala Moon."

PS

A google search revealed that : 'The legendary local characters Leon and his wife Maria, they were part of the foundational fabric of Matala's beachside hospitality during the height of the hippie era. They operated one of the only two primary beachfront tavernas servicing the "flower children" who famously occupied the ancient Roman burial caves. Along with the rival Dolphin Café (which famously blasted Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper on repeat), Leon and Maria's place was a central meeting ground for alternative lifestyle seekers, travelers overland to India, and legendary musicians like Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Janis Joplin. Old travelogues and memoirs from the era fondly recall Leon—always partially shaved—and Maria serving local wine and rustic meals to the cave-dwellers

Britain is no longer a country for and says "Farewell" to George Fenton its master composer of film and TV music

George Fenton who has died at the age of seventy-seven was born in the autumn of 1949 as George Richard Howe in Bromley, Kent and a Second World War baby boomer, four years after the end of the War had ended. He was one of a family of seven, alongside his five brothers and sisters and with the family kept afloat by the wages of his father, Dick, who was a mechanical engineer. 

George, who as a composer, went on to create music for many different worlds as an adult, recalled that : "At school and things I was kind of slightly vacant. In fact in my very little school, when I first went to school they sent me off to the doctors because they thought I was deaf. But I wasn't deaf. I just wasn't listening. I just wanted a sort of another world. I wanted to belong to another world." (link)

His father, 'Dick' was a remarkable man and something of a war hero and four years before George was born, was still a prisoner war in Germany in Colditz Castle where he helped to organise many escapes including eight successful home runs of British officers. Lt. Col. Moran of the Colditz Association described him as : "An outstanding chap, the soul of Colditz. In a crisis he was the most calm individual and he had enormous reserves of will power". All of which has earned him place in Wikipedia. It is highly plausible that George inherited the same traits from his father in his own career in music with his own form of quiet brilliance and immense dedication to his craft. 

Both his parents musical, without being musicians, with Dick on the drums and Gwenda on the piano. In fact, his mother had been a dancer and dance teacher before becoming a nurse during the War. The musical talent in the family probably dated back to George's great grandfather on his father’s side, who was a conductor and apparently, as a child, had been a chorister and had sung at the funeral of the first Duke of Wellington. 

In the family tradition, George sang in church choirs as a boy, but it was the electric guitar, a Rosetti Lucky 7, that first won his heart at the age of 7 in 1956. He later recalled : “I had my first guitar lessons from someone called Brian Rudd. He came into our lives as a chimney sweep, which he clearly wasn’t. My mother went mad at him because he filled the house with soot. As he left he said, “I’m really sorry – but I tuned the boy’s guitar for you.” She suggested that as compensation for the mess he could give me a lesson, which he did and then carried on doing. He also taught my brother the drums and regaled us with eye-popping stories of playing in clubs in Bermondsey, and the fights that followed every Saturday night.”

Having moved with the family to Oxford where, at the age of 14, George became a pupil at the private, fee paying St Edward’s School for Boys, known as 'Teddies', where he served as a prefect an was Head of Field House. He also played in the school choir and the first XV rugby team. 

It was here that George began to study the church organ and the genesis of the musical genius of George Fenton, the composer, began. It was a crucial part of his musical upbringing, not because of the organ itself (although church music was to be a lasting influence on his writing), but because it was at this point that he was fortunate enough to encounter two exceptionally gifted musicians who would have a lasting influence on him. They were both former cathedral organists and worked at the school, namely, David Pettit who was the Director of Music and Peter Whitehouse the assistant director. 

George later said that Peter Whitehouse was the most important person in his musical life, as a teacher and, ultimately, as a colleague who continued to act as a mentor and work with George until his death in 1992. George said : “Peter Whitehouse was a consummate musician. He taught me so much about music in general, and about attitude to music. He demystified the mysterious in an effortless and self-deprecating way.” In these early years, where George was loosely serving his musical apprenticeship, directors frequently noticed his  musical talents and kept casting him in roles that required him to play instruments.

With his 18th year approaching in 1967 George  having turned down the opportunity to go to university saying : “I had no appetite for university or, in fact, music college". Having left school he played in various bands and did a string of odd jobs until, at the age of 19, he auditioned for and was cast in Alan Bennett’s play 'Forty Years On' in Oxford. In order to appear onstage he had to join the actors union, Equity and because the rules prohibited two people having the same name, George ditched his 'Howe' surname and adopted his mother’s maiden name, 'Fenton'. While playing the character 'Tredgold' he also understudied the musical director of the show, Carl Davis. 

George said that after the play "I was offered a place at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, but I turned that down too – mostly out of an aversion to institutions. I don’t know where that came from.” Perhaps another reason was that in 1969 at the age of twenty he had been offered a record deal and as a result under the name of George Howe his version of the Beatles’ song 'Maxwell’s Silver Hammer' became a Top 10 hit in Sweden. (link)

These were clearly George's busy formative years because, while was in 'Forty Years On', he signed a record contract at MCA as a recording artist, and then one with his band at Decca. In addition he worked as a session musician for some pop artists, including B. A. Robertson who when he was putting a live band together to promote his 1976 album, Shadow Of A Thin Man, he recruited a remarkably talented group of backing musicians including George  who was acting as a multi-instrumentalist / sideman.  

He also did some arranging for Carl Davis and others in theatre and television and became increasingly interested in Middle and Far Eastern music. In this he met and started to work with the musician and ethnomusicologist John Leach.

George later said : “John was the person that taught me the ins and outs of the world of commercial music: film music, library music, how to run a session, how to prepare, what musicians expect. He had so much experience: he’d been principal flute with both the Hallé and the Philharmonia orchestras; principal of the Conservatoire Libanais in Beirut; a BBC music librarian; and played the cimbalom for everyone from Kodály and Stravinsky to Maurice Jarre and John Barry.”

In 1974, when he was 25, George was asked by the director Peter Gill to write the music for 'Twelfth Night' for the RSC in Stratford. Since then he wrote extensively for theatre, television, and film. Reflecting his new role, he was one of the original group that founded the Association of Professional Composers in 1976, which later amalgamated with two other organisations to become the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters. 

George's work in theatre composition encompassed work in all of Peter Gill’s productions at Riverside Studios in the twentieth century. In 2020, when he was 71, he wrote the music for the BBC’s 2020 'Talking Heads', both for television and at London’s Bridge Theatre. (link) This was followed swiftly by ‘Beat The Devil’ with Ralph Fiennes, ‘Bach & Sons’ and two yesr later ‘Straight Line Crazy’, also at The Bridge.

In the world of film, as an indirect result of studying with John Leach, and as a direct result of his work at Riverside Studios, George was asked by the director, Richard Attenborough, to co-write the score to the 1982 biopic 'Gandhi' with Ravi Shankar. (link) He went on to score four more of Richard's films. In addition to that his other scores were the result have of long-lasting relationships with the directors, Stephen Frears, Nora Ephron and, in particular, with Ken Loach in a series of nineteen collaborations over 24 years form 1995 to 2019. 

Some of the ninety-nine films scored by George (with links) : 

Note : His brilliant ability to find the musical forms and instrumentation that best suited the project in hand. So for 'Cry Freedom', he mixed African instruments with a western orchestra, and for 'The Madness of King George', directed by Hytner, he incorporated arrangements of baroque pieces by Handel. 

* The History Man (1986)

* Cry Freedom (1987) 

• Dangerous Liaisons (1988) 

• Memphis Belle (1990) 

• The Fisher King (1991) 

• Groundhog Day (1993)  

• Shadowlands (1993) 

* The Madness of King George (1995)

• The Crucible (1996) 

• Ever After : A Cinderella Story (1998)

• You've Got Mail (1999) 

• Anna and the King (1999) 

• Sweet Home Alabama (2002)

• Fool's Gold (2008) 

• Looking for Eric  (2009) 

• Hitch (2005)

• The Lady in the Van  (2015) Alan Bennett commented of George that “his music, and the placing of the music, makes the film”.

• Cold Pursuit (2019) 

• The Duke (2022) 

• The Old Oak (2023)

• The Choral (2025)  : George described his role in the making of the film.

And a compilation of his film compositions from 1982-2015

Back in 1976 George started writing scores for television productions whilst working in theatre, George began to write scores for television with Stephen Poliakoff’s 'Hitting Town' the first of many. in the 1980s came the BAFTA-winning, 'The Jewel in the Crown', 'The Monocled Mutineer' and Alan Bennett’s 'Talking Heads'. He has also wrote many well-known themes for television and recognisable to millions of viewers : 

'BBC’s One O’Clock News' 

'Six O’Clock News'

'Nine O’Clock News' 

'The Money Programme' 

'Newsnight' : His prog rock-esque theme for Newsnight has survived from its 1980 inauguration to the present day. George described its genesis : (link)

Perhaps, most memorably, because the programmes and his scores reached a global audience his work used in 1990 in David Attenborough’s first natural history documentary series, 'The Trials of Life' which was followed it up with his next series, 'Life in the Freezer'. This led to the producer Alastair Fothergill asking George to compose the music for 'The Blue Planet' in 2001, which in turn began a 10-year period of writing for natural history television programmes, including 'Planet Earth', 'Frozen Planet' and 'Life'. In 2022 George partnered up with Alastair and David again, this time for BBC One’s 'Wild Isles' series In this clip George explained the nature of composing music for wildlife tv programmes:(link)   

George reflected on his life as a composer in a short documentary in 2013 (link) In a BBC 'Newsnight' in 2019 George provided an insightful studio session ahead of the programme's 40th anniversary in which he broke down the unique mechanics of writing a television theme tune for a news broadcast whose tone changes every day. (link)

Some of the one hundred and eleven TV programmes scored by George : 

Note :  How he created sweeping symphonic textures for David Attenborough’s nature films.

2006  BBC Planet Earth 

2003  Blue Planet (link) 

1999  Shanghai Vice and George talks about the series 

1998  BBC Talking Heads 2

1986 The Monocled Mutineer 

BBC Bergerac 1986

The Jewel in the Crown 1984  

Saigon-Year of the Cat 1983

BBC The History Man    

BBC Shoestring 

George said : 

"If I was sitting on a desert island and thinking about what a good time I'd had writing music, which I have, I want just one thing to remind me about the best part - which is the fact that you write something and then you're so surprised and thrilled at the way it's played. For a composer, that's the biggest kick you can get."

Why is 'Britain is no country for old men' still so popular around the world ?

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Apparently : 

The blog Britain is no Country for Old Men has gained a dedicated, long-running following because it directly address the systematic issues, vulnerabilities and cultural shifts affecting the elderly in modern British society. Created by an older blogger known as "JohnBoy," it has resonated deeply with readers by shifting the spotlight onto a demographic that often feels sidelined. 

Several key factors contribute to its popularity and sustained relevance:

1. Relatable and Emotionally Charged Origin

The blog was born out of a deeply relatable human experience. The creator started the platform after being treated discourteously at a petrol station, feeling that he had become completely "invisible" simply because he was perceived as elderly. This core theme of combating the social invisibility of older citizens strikes a chord with thousands of readers facing similar experiences. 

2. An Eye-Catching, Literary Title

The blog's name is a brilliant double-reference that immediately hooks the reader: 

• 
  
  It plays on the massive popularity of the Coen brothers' 2007 film and Cormac McCarthy's novel, No Country for Old Men.
• It pays homage to the opening line of W.B. Yeats’ famous poem Sailing to Byzantium ("That is no country for old men. The young / In one another's arms...").(link) 

3. A Bold Focus on Pressing Eldercare & Social Issues

Rather than focusing solely on lighthearted retirement pastimes, the blog serves as a serious, long-running commentary on how older people are structurally treated. It frequently highlights critical, heavy-hitting topics, including: 

• The "Triple Lock" Pension Debate: The financial precarity of aging and government policies affecting state pensions.
• Health and Longevity: Declines in healthy life expectancy for older men and women in the UK compared to other wealthy nations.
• The Epidemic of Isolation: The rising numbers of older men living entirely alone with no family contact.
• Safety and Scams: Exposing age discrimination in public services, elder abuse, and targeted financial scams. 

4. Raw and Authentic Community Engagement

The blog has evolved into a vital digital community hub where older British citizens vent their frustrations, share nostalgic memories, and find solidarity. By blending gritty socio-political commentary with personal reflections—such as the simple indulgence of older men buying convertibles or learning from classic comedians—the platform balances its sharp critique of "Britain's ills" with warm, human-centric validation. 

'Britain is no country for old men who fear the financial terminators who urge Government to kill their state pension's Triple Lock

Google says that : 'Britain is no Country for Old Men' is 'A long-running personal commentary and blog inspired by the famous opening line of W.B. Yeats' poem 'Sailing to Byzantium', which also popularized the title of the Cormac McCarthy novel and Coen brothers film 'No country for Old Men' : The blog's creator chose the title after feeling mistreated and treated as "invisible" or dismissed due to being perceived as elderly. The writer uses the space to comment on how older people are treated in modern society.  Posts highlight issues like elder care, loneliness, and age discrimination in public services.' (link)

When I started this blog in 2009, I described myself as a : 'Post-Second World War baby boomer looking for and finding some surprising answers to the question : 'Is Britain no country for Old Men'. Now, seventeen years and over 3,000,000 page views later, it is time for me to my old stomping ground and find answers to that first question. "Is Britain no country for old men ?"

                                                             * * * * * * * * * * 

At the moment old men and women in Britain are financially uniquely blessed by the 'Triple Lock' which means that every year, the Government looks at three separate figures to determine the pension increase for the upcoming tax year. They are : 

Inflation : The percentage rise in prices, measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) in the 12 months up to September of the previous year.

Average wage growth : The average increase in total wages across Britain. 

A flat 2.5% : A guaranteed minimum increase.

And this is perceived in some quarters to be the over generous bit : 

Which ever of these three numbers is the highest becomes the percentage increase in the state pension in the New Year. 

Terminator Number One : The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC)

Representing 65,000 firms which employ 7.4 million workers it has urged the Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Healey, to axe the state pension pledge and save billions of pounds. The BCC has said that this could save the Exchequer paying out £3.3bn over two years. The lobby group has urged him to cut employers' National Insurance contributions which would boost youth employment and save nearly £10bn over the long term.  

Terminator Number Two : The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 

Its published blunt economic survey called the triple lock "unusually generous" and warned it adds significant fiscal risk that could see Britain's debt balloon to 200% of GDP by 2050. 

Terminator Number Three : The Tony Blair Institute (TBI)

The former Prime Minister's think tank has urged Labour to tear up the "unaffordable" pledge, even floating a radical overhaul to replace the state pension entirely with a flexible "lifespan fund".

Terminator Number Four : The Resolution Foundation

This influential living-standards think tank has consistently pressured the government to phase out the system due to its soaring costs. Notably, Torsten Bell, the former head of the foundation and current Labour pensions policy figure, previously described the system as "silly".

Terminator Number Five : The Green Party 

Ahead of the last election formally proposed replacing it with a "double lock" pegged only to the higher of inflation or earnings and dropping the 2.5% promise.

Terminator Number Six : Sir Howard Davies

The former chairman of the NatWest bank has publicly agreed that the country "can't afford" the policy in its current state.  

Terminators Numbers Seven and Eight : Prime Minister Burnham's Independent Economists, Jim O'Neill (former Goldman Sachs Chief Economist) and Andy Haldane (former Chief Economist at the Bank of England) 

Both have both urged the Prime Minister to scrap the lock. O'Neill has labelled the policy "bonkers" and a "golden opportunity" to repair public finances, while Haldane suggested the savings could help plug the defence budget deficit.

Terminator Number Nine : Mitchell Palmer 

The right-wing economist from the free-market Adam Smith Institute, recently appointed as an adviser to Reform UK's Robert Jenrick who has heavily criticised the triple lock as an expensive and "unsustainable" welfare measure. 

Terminators Number Ten : Cross-Party Politicians and Peers in the House of Lords Peers

Multiple members of the House of Lords have clashed over the escalating costs of the Triple Lock with several peers calling for an immediate replacement. Baroness Thérèse Coffey: the former Conservative minister for the Department of Work and Pensions suggested that the triple lock has achieved its original purpose of rebuilding pension value and should "probably be replaced be with a more stable 'double lock'. 

Graeme Downie: A Labour backbencher who has broken ranks to state that the current system is costing too much money and should be scrapped to boost UK defence spending. He has said that the Government should be brave enough to ask older people who "benefited financially from peace to make a greater contribution to future national security. "

About 1.1 million pensioners in Britain or roughly 12% to 13% of all pensioners rely solely on the State Pension and related state benefits                                     for their income.

Britain fondly remembers an old singer-songwriter called Reg Presley and a band called 'The Troggs' who gave the world 'Love is All Around'

Singer-songwriter Reg, best known as the lead singer with 'The Troggs' died at the age of 71 in 2013, but his musical legacy lives on.

He was born Reginald Maurice Ball in Andover, Hampshire where his father was a bus driver and his mother ran a cafe. He attended Andover Secondary Modern School and left school at 15. He then played the guitar in a local skiffle group and by day worked as a bricklayer. He helped form 'The Troglodytes' which won a 'Battle of the Bands' talent contest in Oxford in 1965 and sent a demo tape to the rock entrepreneur Larry Page, who signed them on and shortened their name to 'The Troggs' and had their debut single with 'Lost Girl'. (link)

Next came 'Wild Thing', written by James Wesley Voight, younger brother of actor Jon, under the name of Chip Taylor which the band recorded in one complete take at Olympic Studios in London.(link) He was still working on a building site when he heard on the radio that 'Wild Thing' had just risen from No 44 to No 8 in the hit parade and later said : "I thought, whew, and threw my trowel down. I put my head in the door and said, "clear out my tools, I'm off'."

He saw the song reach number 2 in the Britain and number 1 in the USA in the Summer of 1966 and was covered by 'The Jimi Hendrix Experience' at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, where it as introduced as : 'The British/American joint 'national anthem'. (link)

Reg followed up with 'With a Girl Like You' which he wrote and which became the group's one and only number 1 in Britain.(link) and then wrote 'I Can't Control Myself'.(link) 

Next came 'Anyway That You Want Me'.(link) and 'Love is All Around (link) in 1967 and the band became part of the pop elite and setting off on a tour with the Walker Brothers he said : "It was so great. It was like landing on the moon for the first time."

With no further success, Reg saw the band split up in 1969 and then reform and saw it regaled as the inspiration for a host of performers, including Iggy Pop and was hailed by the American, Lester Bangs, in a 25,000 word eulogy as, the godfathers of punk, whose music was 'holy'. He credited them with igniting the raw energy that later fueled the punk rock movement. He admired their track "Wild Thing" and songs like "Give It To Me" for what he called, their direct, unvarnished adolescent lust and democratic sexual connection. He noted that they did not overthink their music like avant-garde or self-reflective bands, keeping their primitive art honest and effective.

In 1987, Reg was hailed by Bob Dylan on the set of Richard Marquand’s film, 'Hearts of Fire', in which he was appearing as an extra and said :“I had this guitar around my neck, Dylan recognised me. He came up and said : "How long have you been playing the guitar?" I said, "All bloody afternoon, mate." "

He then saw his slow descent from celebrity dramatically interrupted in 1994 when he was 53 years old when his composition, 'Love is all Around', which had been a Top 10 hit for 'The Troggs', 27 years earlier, covered by the Scottish group 'Wet Wet Wet' with singer Marti Pellow. This was used on the soundtrack of the film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', reached No 1 and remained there for 15 weeks.(link)

Reg used substantial royalties from 'Love is All Around' to fund his personal investigations of what he felt were neglected areas of science, notably : alien spacecraft, lost civilisations and alchemy and in his 2002 book, 'Wild Things They Don’t Tell Us', concentrated on alien abductions, crop circles and what he saw as the close relationship between UFO’s and ancient monuments.

In 2003 he saw  a modified version of 'Love Is All Around' featured in the film 'Love Actually', performed by actor Bill Nighy. (link)

His friend, Keith Altham once said of him : "I have always liked Reg, because he has an innocence about him, in a profession dominated by people who are self-important and unreceptive. Even when he is wrong, he is sincerely wrong. He is very likeable. His interests are harmless. He is not mad.”

In December 2012 he was diagnosed with lung cancer after becoming ill during a tour in Germany and wrote to his fans on the band's website: "I am receiving chemotherapy treatment and at the moment not feeling too bad. However I've had to call time on The Troggs and retire. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the cards and calls and for your love, loyalty and support over the years … I shall miss you all. Lots of Love."