UK
Support the Troops: Military Obligation, Gender, and the Making of Political Community – review
In Support the Troops: Military Obligation, Gender, and the Making of Political Community, Katherine Millar analyses “support the troops” discourses in the US and UK during the early years of the global war on terror (2001-2010). Millar’s is a nuanced and powerful study of shifting civilian-military relations – and more broadly, of political community and belonging – in liberal democracies, writes Amy Gaeta.
Read an interview with Katherine Millar about the book published on LSE Review of Books in March 2023.
Support the Troops: Military Obligation, Gender, and the Making of Political Community. Katherine Millar. Oxford University Press. 2022.
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Katherine Millar’s Support the Troops identifies the emergence of calls to “support the troops” in the US and UK and asks what this discourse not only represents about political community and gender relations, but how this call mobilises public support for wars they may also oppose.
Millar contextualises “support the troops” within the normative construction of civilian-military relations in liberal democracies, and in doing so, challenges what she calls “the good story of liberalism” by tracing how liberalism has feigned moral superiority and structure by distancing itself from the military violence upon which it relies for maintenance (xx).
Millar contextualises ‘support the troops’ within the normative construction of civilian-military relations in liberal democracies, and in doing so, challenges what she calls ‘the good story of liberalism’
Across eight chapters, Millar assembles an impressive and varied archive of calls to support the troops, including speeches, media reports, government press releases, bumper stickers, adverts, and more. The book is guided by the feminist methodological impulse to confront uncertainty and partiality in our objects of study. In other words, it is refreshing that Millar admits this impressively researched book is guided by a series of unanswered questions that emerged in her personal experience of living in Canada during the Iraq War. These questions include, “can you oppose a war while still living in community” (x) and “why do we think we have to [support the troops]?” (xi). Also impressive is Millar’s choice to not focus on individuals’ reasons for why they do or do not support the troops. By focusing on the larger patterns in discourse, Support the Troops offers a more applicable and comparative work that enables readers to appreciate the slight, yet telling difference in US and UK civil-military relations and their formation.
Millar refuses easy equations and assumptions, namely the notion that “support the troops” is yet another site of militarism.
In this exploration, Millar refuses easy equations and assumptions, namely the notion that “support the troops” is yet another site of militarism. Rather than providing an answer, Millar instead demonstrates that militarism is simply not a productive analytical framing. Using the analytic of “discursive martiality,” she treats the military as a “discourse of gendered obligation and socially generative violence” and aims to follow how it moves and what it forecloses (35).
The idea that serving and thereby being willing to go to war and possibly die or become disabled for one’s country, is a key quality of what it meant to be a ‘good citizen,’ a deeply masculinised and racialised ideal.
Central to her investigation of support the troops discourse is the liberal military contract, a binding element of modern-day liberal democracies. Namely, the contract is the idea that serving and thereby being willing to go to war and possibly die or become disabled for one’s country, is a key quality of what it meant to be a “good citizen,” a deeply masculinised and racialised ideal. In earlier 20th-century wars, namely the World Wars, attacks on the domestic front, such as the aerial bombing of civilian areas in the UK, cultivated a shared sense of vulnerability among publics with the military and therefore obligation to sacrifice something in service of the war, Millar argues. As such, by World War Two, the expectation that everyone should do one’s part for the war – no matter the war – became domesticated, “experientially, affectively, and ideologically within the US and UK” (52). Structurally then, this further sedimented the feminisation of the domestic front – providing charity and care labour and making sacrifices at home – and the masculinisation of the war front – being willing to die to protect their nation and the feminised home front.
Particularly illuminating about Millar’s project is her tracing of how different wars produced different discursive formations of military personnel and therefore civilian-military relations. A memorable example is the refrain of “our boys” during the Vietnam War which framed soldiers as innocent, emphasising their youth and pre-empting how the experience of war would rush them into “manhood” (55). The innocent angle also firmly contrasts the horrors of the Vietnam War enacted by US soldiers.
The pluralised and more passive formation of the “troops” still requires the support of the public, posing important questions about what the troops need support for, and what support the military and government are failing to provide them that the public must supplement.
Once again, today, civilian-military relations are in flux for civilians living in liberal democracies. War is something that happens “over there,” and no longer do eager citizens enlist in hoards and go to war overseas, nor are they drafted, although military recruitment campaigns are still going strong. In tandem, many military service jobs appear as rather mundane, and this may impact the social importance and status of soldiers and soldiering to classed, racialised, and gendered ideas of civilised and ultimately “good” citizenship. Millar argues that these changes contribute to a shift in the gendered structure of the liberal military contract’s relationship to normalising violence. Whereas in past wars, where killing and dying for the state were key to masculinised normative citizenship, now “violence is presented as incidental to war, something that ‘happens’ to the vulnerable, structurally feminized troops” (102). The pluralised and more passive formation of the “troops” still requires the support of the public, posing important questions about what the troops need support for, and what support the military and government are failing to provide them that the public must supplement.
Millar’s text is extremely pertinent in a political era of cyberwar, drone warfare, and other forms of warfare that do not require the same degree of physical and geographical mobilising of troops.
Millar’s text is extremely pertinent in a political era of cyberwar, drone warfare, and other forms of warfare that do not require the same degree of physical and geographical mobilising of troops. As an academic working across questions of disability, gender, and contemporary US militarisation, I found Millar’s project to offer generative questions about how political community emerges differently when the ready-to-die cisgender-heterosexual-male idea of a solider and the violence inflicted by war is moved out of the view of the domestic front, especially when that figure is not even physically present in geographically defined spaces of conflict and war.
The book did leave me wanting a more robust analysis of the relationship between “good citizenship,” Whiteness, and masculinity, all of which are deeply shaped by the violence that underpins the “good” story of liberalism and civilian-military relations – although Millar certainly does not ignore or deny those connections. Yet, this may also be read as an opportunity for scholars to examine how changes in military service expectations and roles affect the ways that racial structures shift in accordance.
Millar’s investigation of the discursive patterns around “support the troops” begs questions about what happens when a minority or a wider segment of the public refuses to give such support.
Support the Troops is a powerful text that invites readers to think carefully about the present-day formation of political community and belonging in liberal democracies. Millar’s investigation of the discursive patterns around “support the troops” begs questions about what happens when a minority or a wider segment of the public refuses to give such support. As large waves of state-critical activism and civil protests continue to sweep across the US and UK, among other parts of the world, Support the Troops is a crucial touchpoint for understanding the “good story of liberalism” and the types of social contracts it relies upon for cohesion between the state, the military, and citizens.
This post gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog, or of the London School of Economics and Political Science. The LSE RB blog may receive a small commission if you choose to make a purchase through the above Amazon affiliate link. This is entirely independent of the coverage of the book on LSE Review of Books.
Image Credit: CL Shebley on Shutterstock.
Political vision
Most psychologists would suggest that we all need hope for the future. Indeed doesn’t the Corbyn led Labour Party’s enormous membership suggest hope? One of the first public speeches he ever gave was in Camborne in Cornwall – somewhere which was remarkably well attended, although little recorded, and somewhere where the current prospective Labour candidate,... Read more
Milo Miller introduces Speak Out!: The Brixton Black Women’s Group
In an excerpt from the preface to Speak Out!: The Brixton Black Women’s Group, editor Milo Miller shares context about the group and the impetus for the book which brings together, for the first time, the writings of one of Britain’s pioneering Black radical organisations of the 1970s.
Speak Out!: The Brixton Black Women’s Group. Brixton Black Women’s Group; Milo Miller (ed.). Verso. 2023.
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The Brixton Black Women’s Group (BBWG), which formed in 1973 and lasted until 1989, was a Black socialist feminist organisation based in Brixton, south London. It is thought to be the first autonomous Black women’s group of its kind to be established in London, and to be among the first in Britain more broadly (indeed, it was initially known simply as ‘the Black Women’s Group’).
The [Brixton Black Women’s Group] was central to radical struggles against racism, fascism, sexism and class oppression in London and beyond
The group was central to radical struggles against racism, fascism, sexism and class oppression in London and beyond, organising extensively around the policing and criminalisation of Black people, reproductive justice, housing, labour, legislation on immigration and nationality, education and more. The BBWG worked closely with other community groups and organisations; it was also actively part of networks of women’s groups nationally and internationally. It was instrumental in establishing the Organisation of Women of Asian and African Descent (OWAAD), which existed between 1978 and 1983 and was the first national Black women’s organisation in the UK.
Political Blackness […] was understood as encompassing all those exploited in Britain through historical and modern forms of colonialism, imperialism and racism. “Blackness”, in this sense, functioned as a site of active and relational re/articulation; as a site of resistance, of solidarity and of coalition.
Crucially, the BBWG organised on the grounds of political Blackness. “Blackness”, in this formulation, was not understood as a descriptive category referring, for example, to “race” or skin colour; rather, it was understood as encompassing all those exploited in Britain through historical and modern forms of colonialism, imperialism and racism. “Blackness”, in this sense, functioned as a site of active and relational re/articulation; as a site of resistance, of solidarity and of coalition. This conceptualisation of Blackness was prevalent (though far from settled or uncontested) in Britain’s Black Power movement in the 1970s and 1980s, and the BBWG’s members, accordingly, included women from and with ties to the Caribbean, Asia and Africa. This approach was central to – and further developed by the BBWG’s critical involvement in – OWAAD, which explicitly marked it by referring to women of Asian and African descent in its name.
Along with the Mary Seacole Craft Group, the BBWG established the Mary Seacole House, later renamed the Black Women’s Centre, in 1979. For much of its existence, the centre was managed by the BBWG. It became a focal point for the meeting of women’s groups and political organisations working across London. The centre hosted a regular legal and welfare rights information and referral service; a craft workshop; a health group providing, among other services, advice on contraception and pregnancy; a crèche; children’s activities during school holidays; and a library and resource centre specialising in women’s literature and Black history. In the aftermath of the April 1981 Brixton Uprising, the centre also functioned as the headquarters of the Brixton Defence Campaign’s Legal Defence Group.
The BBWG’s newsletter, Speak Out […] contained reports on the BBWG and other grassroots groups’ work on a variety of fronts, in-depth political position statements, analyses of proposed legislation, explainers on health issues and accounts of liberation struggles across the Global South.
The BBWG’s newsletter, Speak Out, detailed all of this. It contained reports on the BBWG and other grassroots groups’ work on a variety of fronts, in-depth political position statements, analyses of proposed legislation, explainers on health issues and accounts of liberation struggles across the Global South. Alongside these, there were poems and illustrations by BBWG members, as well as reviews of plays, films and novels – emphasising the group’s understanding of culture and political struggle as inseparable, and of art and self-expression as integral to movements for liberation. Collectively written pieces – on, for example, the issues the group organised around, the coalitions the group was part of, and the group’s political positions – appeared in publications such as Race Today, Spare Rib, Red Rag and Feminist Review.
This book brings together, for the first time, all of the issues of Speak Out as well as statements, articles and book chapters written by the Brixton Black Women’s Group.
Over the years, many individuals and groups have devoted a considerable amount of effort to honouring the BBWG’s work – not least the writers of the landmark 1985 book The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain. The first sustained account of Black women’s history in Britain written by Black women, The Heart of the Race was written by BBWG members Beverley Bryan and Suzanne Scafe with OWAAD co-founder Stella Dadzie, and features an extended section on the BBWG. Elsewhere, Dadzie’s personal papers, held at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton, have long included the most comprehensive collection of BBWG documents available. Despite efforts by a great many people, however, the wealth of writing produced by the BBWG has remained scattered and often difficult to access. This book brings together, for the first time, all of the issues of Speak Out as well as statements, articles and book chapters written by the Brixton Black Women’s Group. It also contains other hard-to-access archival material essential to understanding the group’s work and trajectory.
Why wasn’t the group’s trailblazing work as celebrated as it deserved to be and available as a resource in combatting current, seemingly intractable and ever-intensifying crises?
The research culminating in this book began in 2016, as part of my work on my PhD thesis, which focused on squatting in Brixton from the 1970s to the 2010s. During my PhD, I began compiling as much of the BBWG’s writings as I could find, in addition to writing by individual members of the group. I visited archives and typed up issues of Speak Out, as well as leaflets produced by the group; I tracked down out-of-print books and journals, typing up chapters and articles written by the group or by individual members. Initially, this was solely so I could easily revisit this writing and quote from it as needed in my thesis; over time, however, this gathering of the BBWG’s writing became a project in its own right, as the group’s visionary work speaks urgently to the conditions we face in the present. I began to share the material I was collecting with friends, whose excitement was palpable. Many of them had never heard of the group; some had but had never encountered the group’s writings. My own excitement was beginning to be mixed with frustration: Why wasn’t this material more widely known and accessible? Why was the Brixton Black Women’s Group so absent from accounts of any number of key political issues, campaigns and events in 1970s and 1980s Britain to which they were central? Why wasn’t the group’s trailblazing work as celebrated as it deserved to be and available as a resource in combatting current, seemingly intractable and ever-intensifying crises? It became very clear: the collected writings of the Brixton Black Women’s Group had to be published.
With this in mind, from 2017 onwards I worked on this collection whenever I could. I continued typing up articles and chapters; I tracked down an elusive Speak Out issue; I found photos of the Black Women’s Centre; I carefully removed photocopier static from images in issues of Speak Out. In November 2020 I contacted members of the BBWG and sent them what I had put together, with the offer to take this forward should they be willing. Meticulous discussions then took place between us: What should the scope of the book be? What material was perhaps beyond that scope, and what material had yet to be included? Members looked to their personal archives and sent me more material to include, from leaflets and statements to photographs.
The year of this book’s publication – 2023 – marks fifty years since the Brixton Black Women’s Group was founded.
The year of this book’s publication – 2023 – marks fifty years since the Brixton Black Women’s Group was founded. As fascism sees a resurgence around the world, as the struggle against police brutality and racism must continue unabated, as attacks on reproductive rights and bodily autonomy rage on and as border regimes and capitalism continue to exact their deadly toll, the work and legacy of the Brixton Black Women’s Group remain as vital and necessary as ever. This book is offered in the hope that it might provide tools to not only understand and confront this current conjuncture but also prefigure and enact practices of mutual aid, solidarity and resistance so urgently needed to overcome it. It is offered in the hope that it might provide tools to imagine a radically different world; a world beyond the brutal entanglement of conquest and empire.
Note: This excerpt from the introduction to Speak Out!: The Brixton Black Women’s Group by the Brixton Black Women’s Group, edited by Milo Miller, is copyrighted to Verso Books, and is reproduced here with their permission.
This post gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog, or of the London School of Economics and Political Science. The LSE RB blog may receive a small commission if you choose to make a purchase through the above Amazon affiliate link. This is entirely independent of the coverage of the book on LSE Review of Books.
Image Credit: Some members of the BBWG in 1979, courtesy of Milo Miller/Verso.
Video: IDF caught faking ‘attempted Hamas ambush’
‘Prisoner’ seen dragged away in underwear caught putting pants back on after camera supposed to have stopped filming
The IDF’s attempts at propaganda have been as howlingly inept as its bombing of Gazan civilians has been deadly, from being caught planting evidence in Al Shifa hospital, to claiming a chart showed the names of ‘terrorists’ when in fact it showing the days of the week, to claiming a man covered in blood in a hospital CCTV video was an unhurt hostage being hidden in the hospital.
Meanwhile – although ignored by complicit western media – Israel has admitted that its own helicopters and artillery killed large numbers of Israeli citizens whose deaths it blamed on Hamas.
And now the IDF appears to have been caught faking a ‘Hamas ambush’ in which it dragged off a ‘terrorist’ in his underwear – only for the camera to catch the man putting his clothes back on, with no soldiers holding him captive, behind a screen.
The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal first outed the incident and was blocked by the right-wing US reporter who had claimed it was an attempted ambush:
After blocking me for exposing his (possibly unwitting) participation in Israel’s planting evidence at Shifa hospital, Fox’s @TreyYingst stands accused of a hoax standoff. He’s fervently denied it on his IG account. I think more investigation is in order. pic.twitter.com/TMLB17ZNAV
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) November 24, 2023
Yngst then claimed that a still featured in Blumenthal’s video showed the man getting undressed under IDF guard:
But in the actual footage it is clear that the still was taken after the man was shown being escorted away blindfolded (with media and military cameras conveniently ready to film that part) – and the footage showing him putting his trousers back on appears at the end of the clip apparently because a cloth screen blew upward in the wind, followed by agitated soldiers telling the camera to stop filming:
Israel’s merciless mass killing of children and civilian women and the elderly, combined with its propaganda incompetence and the arrogance of its spokespeople, have led millions to march for peace and justice for Palestinians and to deride the endless propaganda failures that would certainly be fatal to its narrative if the western media reported half of what is revealed by the Israeli press and broadcasters.
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New wave of Black Friday “Make Amazon Pay” strikes and protests in 30+ countries
Global Amazon workers take action on one of online retailer’s busiest days of the year
Tomorrow on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year – then on through the weekend and onto Monday, Amazon workers will stage strikes and protests in over thirty countries around the world, in a massive day of action coordinated by the Make Amazon Pay campaign.
Christy Hoffman, General Secretary of UNI Global Union, said of the wave of action:
This day of action grows every year because the movement to hold Amazon accountable keeps getting bigger and stronger. Workers know that it doesn’t matter what country you’re in or what your job title is, we are all united in the fight for higher wages, an end to unreasonable quotas, and a voice on the job. That’s what workers in Coventry are striking for, and that is why workers around the world are standing up to Make Amazon Pay.
The global day of action is taking place for the four Black Friday in a row. In previous years, thousands of workers went on strike at facilities throughout Germany, France, Spain, the UK and Italy; garment workers’ took to the streets in Bangladesh; US workers organised walkouts; civil society allies held demonstrations projecting the Make Amazon Pay logo at Amazon headquarters all over the world and projecting “pandemic profiteer” onto Jeff Bezos’s mansion; and climate activists blockaded Amazon warehouses in three European countries.
Co-convened by UNI Global Union and Progressive International, Make Amazon Pay brings together over 80 unions, civil society organisations, environmentalist groups and tax watchdogs including Greenpeace, 350.org, Tax Justice Network and Amazon Workers International. The groups have united behind a set of common demands that Amazon pays its workers fairly, respects their right to join unions, pays its fair share of taxes and commits to real environmental sustainability.
Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International, said
From the warehouses in Coventry to the factories of Dhaka, this Global Day of Action is more than a protest. It is a worldwide declaration that this age of abuse must end. Amazon’s globe-spanning empire, which exploits workers, our communities and our planet, now faces a growing globe-spanning movement to Make Amazon Pay.
The day of action will include:
- Warehouse worker and driver strikes in the UK, Italy, US, Spain and Germany
- Climate activists in at least seven countries – Japan, Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom and Canada – protesting at Amazon Web Services (AWS) facilities to call out Amazon’s ‘greenwashing’, its data centres’ growing climate impact and electricity consumption, and AWS’s contracts with fossil fuels companies
- Thousands of workers rallying to protest in more than ten Indian cities
- Bangladeshi Garment workers take mass action in Dhaka to demand a minimum wage of $209 per month, an end to police harassment, which has seen trade unionists killed, and demand that Amazon signs up to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety
These actions reflect the widespread criticism of Amazon’s corporate practices. According to a comprehensive 2023 UNI Global Union survey, Amazon’s intense performance monitoring has inflicted stress, pressure, anxiety, and a sense of mistrust among its employees across eight key countries. The survey reveals alarming statistics: 51% of employees report adverse health effects; 57% cite deteriorating mental health due to Amazon’s intrusive monitoring. This has led to increasing scrutiny from lawmakers and the public, with US Senator Bernie Sanders investigating the company’s “abysmal safety record.”
A new report by the U.S.-based National Employment Law Project (NELP), Amazon’s warehouse workers receive significantly lower wages compared to other workers in the sector and considerably less than average earnings in their corresponding U.S. counties.
In a landmark move, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 17 state attorneys general have launched a lawsuit against tech and retail giant Amazon.com, Inc., accusing it of maintaining a monopolistic grip on the market through a series of anti-competitive practices.
Stuart Appelbaum, President of RWDSU, said:
This global action underscores the urgent need for Amazon to address its egregious labour practices and engage in fair bargaining with its workers. Our collective actions are gaining momentum, challenging Amazon’s unfair practices and advocating for workers’ rights and a sustainable future for all. Together, we can Make Amazon Pay.
Nazma Akhter, President of the Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation and Progressive International council member, added:
In Bangladesh, garment workers make the clothes that Amazon sells and profits from. But Amazon doesn’t even recognize us as its workers nor sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety to keep our factories safe. That precarity leaves us open to even more abuse: dangerous working conditions, a minimum wage below the $209 per month we are demanding, and trade unionists attacked and killed by police. We make Amazon’s profits and together with our brothers and sisters around the world, we will Make Amazon Pay.
Irish Senator Lynn Boylan:
Amazon is failing our planet. At its current rate, Amazon won’t reach its stated 2040 net zero target until 2378. In my country, Ireland, Amazon’s hunger for relentless expansion will contribute to us exceeding our carbon budget with plans for three new data centres, whose insatiable demand for electricity drives up demand for gas. The unbridled expansion of data centres has raised alarms, with EirGrid warning of grid instability and the risk of rolling blackouts. Across the world, Amazon Web Services is deeply involved in different phases of oil production, focusing on pipelines, shipping, and storage for oil and gas companies. It’s time to Make Amazon Pay for its environmental damage.
Teamsters member Jessie Moreno at the Manchester summit
Jessie Moreno, Amazon Teamsters member from Local 396 in California:
Amazon workers are taking action around the globe to fight for the good jobs we deserve. In the U.S., my Teamster siblings and I are on strike against Amazon’s unfair labor practices. We have taken our picket line across the country and now we’re joining our colleagues from around the world to demand respect, fair wages, and a workplace where our health and safety are a priority. Amazon is no match for the power of its workers united.
Moreno’s union has been on strike against Amazon for more than 150 days. Watch his interview with Skwawkbox at last month’s Make Amazon Pay summit in Manchester here.
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If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
A House divided against itself Cannot Stand
“A House divided against itself Cannot Stand” is a famous speech by Abraham Lincoln in 1858. For a country to be prosperous and successful it must cohere and find common ground. Countries that choose confrontation and wedge issues are less successful, especially over the long term. America was descending into chaos at the time, and... Read more
Bad Kingdom (1972)
In 1972, the government drew up plans to construct a deportation facility off the coast of Ireland that could house as many as 70 million people - the entire population of the UK, if need be. The intention was to make it an exact replica of the United Kingdom and call it Bad Kingdom. Nobody, it seemed, fulfilled the increasingly stringent criteria of what it meant to be truly British.
Experts estimated that, by 2050, the United Kingdom's only remaining residents would be members of the Cabinet, the Royal family, and bald-headed perpetually enraged men with a poor command of the English language whose idea of patriotism was to attack with deckchairs anyone who so much as spoke with a foreign accent.
In all likelihood, without enough people to maintain a working infrastructure, these UK residents would have to sneak into Bad Kingdom in order to stock up on supplies and to have a shower, although doing so would be illegal and carry a sentence of deportation back to the United Kingdom where they risked being deported to Bad Kingdom, leaving the UK empty.
Election Posters of the 1970s
Of all the 304 general elections that were held in the UK during the 1970s, these three election posters for the Conservative party are among the few campaign materials that are still extant. This is largely due to the fact that campaign slogans were more often compulsorily tattooed onto ailing citizens who collected welfare benefits.*
All promotional literature was designed and printed by the Scarfolk Advertising Agency, who, it was later revealed to the surprise of all clients concerned, had been working not only for the Conservative, but also the Labour and Liberal Parties.
Furthermore, the agency cleverly maximised its profits by selling exactly the same poster designs to all clients. Only the party name was changed. This made it difficult for voters to decide who to vote for, but it also confused politicians who became unsure which party they belonged to.
*See also: ‘Trampvertising’.
Further reading: 'Watch Out! There's a Politician About' (1975), 'Voting isn't Working' election poster, 'Democracy Rationing', 'Put Old People Down at Birth' election pamphlet.
Hatfitz and Cara hit the UK
UK
July 22 West End Centre Aldershot
July 23 ~recording London ~
July 24 Norden Farm Maidenhead
July 25 Exeter Phoenix
July 26 Emsworth Sports & Social Club, Emsworth
July 27 Port Eliot Festival, St Germans, Cornwall
July 28 Port Eliot Festival, St Germans, Cornwall
July 29 Fishery Wharf Cafe Boxmoor Hemel Hempstead
EUROPE
August 2 JamDays Festival Odense Denmark
August 3 Notodden Bluesfest Norway
August 4 Notodden Bluesfest Norway
August 5 Speelplaats Baars Netherlands [email for tickets]
August 7 Roots in ‘t Groen Midsummer Special Heerenhuys23, Geldrop Netherlands
August 9 Festival InterCeltique Lorient, France
August 10 Festival des Filles Bergerac, France
August 14 Festival Relâche Bordeaux, France
August 17 Le Buis Blues Festival Le Buis, France
August 18 Festival Blues In Août Montreuil sur Mer, France
August 19 Swing Wespalaar Belgium