Soon to be called

Hi!

My name is Steve Wallis and I am the founder of a band currently called Galaxia (named after the very left-wing state of the galaxy at the end of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series), but that may be renamed Red Day (like Green Day but explicitly socialist), Red Friday or Red Letter Day. The final decision on the name of band will be made collectively when we get together.

I am currently contemplating two separate bands, with Galaxia set up in the fairly near future – perhaps with an emphasis on science fiction, utilising my songs with such a theme (99 Blue Balloons, The Colourscheme and Smile) and the sci-fi musical poem To The Earth With Love which justifies that name for the band – and with Red Day or Red Friday set up later. One of the considerations in the decision is how the money from the band(s) will be distributed, as explained below.

There is one person who, more than anyone else in the world (with the possible exception of myself), could make the difference between us being moderately successful and being an international phenomenon – an attractive Indian (non-violent) anarchist based in New York called Priya Reddy (also known as warcry), the main person behind War Cry Cinema. She has a brilliant mind, as demonstrated by the way she out-thought and exposed delegates that she interviewed entering a Republican Convention, in a DVD she showed at the 2005 Earth First! Gathering (which is where I met her). Her film-making skills could enable us to have great music videos, that would be extremely popular on sites like YouTube. Hopefully, she can also sing and/or play an instrument in the band too. I believed, based on statistics about my websites and the likelihood that our enemies would perceive her as a serious threat, that she was a political prisoner in a psychiatric institution in the USA that she compared to the Auschwitz concentration camp, until she emailed me in January 2008 to let me know that she had never been in such a place. The first song I wrote for Priya is Belly Of The Beast (before I came to that conclusion) and I wrote a few more afterwards, including On My Own (which I have written new lyrics for, dedicated to someone else), Wonderwall, You’re a rebel and Fairytale of New York. I have made recordings of those songs as musical poems, except for the last of those on which I was accompanied by music from a karaoke CD; click on the following links for MP3 versions – Belly Of The Beast, On My Own, Wonderwall, You’re a rebel, Fairytale of New York.

I have been recruiting band members in Glasgow, which I am nwhere we will be based (I would prefer it to be Glasgow but it is possible that it will be Cardiff). I will publicise details of when the band first gets together on this web page and the galaxiamusic discussion group (that can be accessed on the web or you can receive or send messages by email), so that anyone who is interested in participating can turn up.

The most promising prospects I have found so far for the band are as follows:

• An extremely attractive Pakistani woman/girl (who is about 18 years old) called Hira, who I met on the Glasgow anti-Trident anti-war demonstration on the 24th of February 2007 and can play bass guitar. I unfortunately did not get her contact details, but I hope and expect her to get in touch soon or turn up when the band gets together.
• A 23 year old woman called Joanne Simpson (on vocals and guitar or keyboard). I am currently unsure whether she is genuine enough to be in the band, as I explain in my song Socialist Chameleon.
• Priya Reddy, otherwise known as warcry, who I mentioned above but can hopefully play an instrument and/or sing as well as doing videos for the band.

Somebody claiming to be Kate Bush (who I did not think really was her because she said that she knew a lot about her childhood but perhaps she was doing this deliberately to put doubts in my mind) said she wanted to be in the band, having seen many messages from me on the rec.music.gaffa newsgroup linked to the Love Hounds mailing list. I said I did not think she was good enough because she screeched in her Red Shoes album apart from on the inspirational but fairly nonsensical song Moments of Pleasure. After hearing her recent double album which is utterly terrible, I think that she may have been deliberately releasing this dross (which incredibly was nominated for an award) to encourage bad people to get into her great music, particularly the Hounds of Love album and her beautiful and very political duet Don’t Give Up with Peter Gabriel. At one point, she went through mental anguish, which she thanked me for getting her out of; perhaps the poor quality of her double album is a sign that she still has emotional problems to deal with. When I was out-of-touch with her for a while, despite her sending me quite an important email, she talked about organising a rescue party to free me from the psychiatric ward I was incarcerated in, but I got sufficient leave to email her back and put her off that idea! At one point Kate said that she had met up with another famous singer Eddi Reader (of Fairground Attraction fame who later sang the brilliant Patience of Angels) and told me that Eddi wanted to be in my and too. Eddi sent a message of support to the demonstration organised by the Scottish Socialist Party in the centre of Edinburgh at the time the Queen of England opened the new Scottish parliament building, at which over 1,000 people signed the Declaration of Calton Hill for an independent Scottish republic on the basis of liberty, equality, diversity and solidarity. However, she sang at the official ceremony in front of the Queen. She was brilliant (and looking far better looking than she did in Fairground Attraction, enabling her to get a better rapport with other good people and therefore playing a more positive role in society) on a Burns Night programme shown in TV, I may like one or both of them to both be in my band, but I will need to meet them to find out if they really are good enough politically (and indeed if the person emailing me really was Kate Bush).

Another person who I particularly want in the band is a very pretty 34 year old woman called Cath Bann (my strongest collaborator and the woman I was most in love with between 1998 and 2003); I suggested that she learned to sing and play an instrument so that she can be in my band when she heard me perform my karaoke speciality Great Balls of Fire in Manchester in the spring of 2003. I have written a few songs/musical poems dedicated to Cath; the lyrics of Too Good To Be Forgotten contain a lot of information about her role in my life, and I wish Cath was a folk rocker (with flowers in her hair) is a track that may attract a lot of people to the band due to Sandi Thom’s song I wish I was a punk rocker (with flowers in my hair) being a massive number one hit in 2006 (achieved due to her concerts performed live on the internet from her Tooting basement). What Can I Do? is a love song for Cath.

The other people who I am particularly keen to recruit to the band are a Canadian anarchist called Gwen Noel who used to camp at the anti-Trident peace camp at Faslane but returned to Canada, a former Manchester psychiatric nurse called Sonya Qureshi (featured particularly on my musical poem My Life (part 1)), another Manchester psychiatric nurse called Emma (for whom I wrote the song Missing You), an American woman I met and fell in love with travelling up the west coast of the USA (as recalled in my song The Fugitive) called Ronda Prunty, a Dutch student called Jonika with Indonesian ancestry who is a member of the Scottish Socialist Party and two old friends who I have lost touch with: Thomas Branagan (on harp) and a Jewish woman called Rebecca.

I am also keen to involve the following famous people in the band, but some of them may not be keen to join until we have made a name for ourselves:

• Martine McCutcheon – actor and singer/songwriter for whom I have a page on my socialist website. She has a lot of other commitments, including a CD released in 2007. She will also act in a 12-episode soap called Echo Beach, alongside Jason Donovan (who became famous in Neighbours while Martine became famous as Tiffany in EastEnders) who plays her ex-lover. There will be a ground-breaking comedy on alongside that soap about trying to get onto the soap. I am actually very keen to audition for a part in the comedy (which could perhaps result in me getting on Echo Beach), since I have done some acting in my time, am good at improvising and think I have a very good sense of humour. Also, I would very much like to meet Martine, even if she is not keen to join my band.
• Konnie Huq – Blue Peter presenter and participant on Comic Relief does Fame Academy, in which she sang brilliantly and was the recipient of racism and mind control, as I explain on my konnie-huq-fans discussion group.
• Anna Friel – actor who Michael Friel, who claimed to be her cousin, said can play the flute. She made her name in the soap Brookside, playing a gay woman who was the daughter of someone who killed her violent husband; together they buried his body under the patio. Anna’s character committed suicide in jail. She has been in further TV programmes and films since, so like Martine may be very busy.
• Rihanna – a young attractive black singer whose song Umbrella was the most requested song on the digital TV programme, The Hits, on the 9th of July 2007. Part of the reason I like her is the similarity of her name to the first serious love of my life, Rhiannon Williams, but I like her music too! [Note: After writing this comment, I found out that Rihanna was at number one in the USA, presumably with the same track, for at least seven weeks. It is therefore very unlikely that she will want to join my band, but there is no harm in making that suggestion...]
• Myleene Klass – a young mixed race singer , who became famous on the Popstars TV programme and was a member of the band Hearsay. She is particularly brilliant on the piano, as revealed on the programme, so would be an ideal member of the band playing the keyboards/piano. She has gone into classical music, which could act an extra dimension to the band.
• Kimberley Rew – a member of Katrina and the Waves, who is a very good guitar player and brilliant songwriter, having written most of their songs including their three hits in the UK: Walking On Sunshine, Sun Street and Love Shine a Light (which sounds rather cheesy but won the Eurovision S0ng Contest by the largest margin ever (by a long way), due to it being an anti-war and anti-racist song about love across the borders of the world. He also wrote some very political songs, including Psalm 23 (the best anti-war song I have ever heard), Walking Where The Roses Grow (an environmental song which was my favourite of all time for quite a while) and Legalise Marijuana. He also wrote their song, Going Down to Liverpool, which became the first single of the Bangles, released at the time of the Militant-led Labour council in Liverpool, that inflicted the first significant defeat on Margaret Thatcher in winning a lot of extra money for the city (the second major defeat, which actually ended her time in power, was also led by Militant: the mass non-payment campaign that defeated the poll tax which is the subject of my song Poll Tax Victory). Virtually all their songs were sung by Katrina Leskanich, but Kimberley sang very well in two songs on the final Katrina and the Waves album, including in the song Girl With Blue Eyes. I set up the katrina-and-the-waves discussion group for the band.
• Yona Dunsford – the best backing singer I have ever heard; she sang a lot on the first three albums of favourite overtly political band of all time Latin Quarter (Modern Times, Mick & Caroline and Swimming Against The Stream). She also played the keyboards for Latin Quarter. I have created the latin-quarter-and-steve-skaith discussion group for that band.
• Do – the female singer in the DJ Sammy and Yanou cover versions of Heaven, originally by Bryan Adams. Depending on what mood I am in, I sometimes regard the Candlelight Mix of that song (an easy listening song available on DJ Sammy ’s first album) as my favourite song of all time. It reminds me of Nathalie Monier, a friend and comrade of mine who was assassinated about a week before Princess Diana. The Candleflip Mix, which is a cross between the dance version of the song that became a number one hit and the Candlelight Mix (available as a B-side of DJ Sammy ’s Boys of Summer single), is a song for Alana Murray. Alana was assassinated in December 2006 due to her potential role in my life; at one stage she was my best contact for the band and I later wanted her to help me learn to play the drums as well as perform, as a drummer on some tracks and perhaps playing other instruments on others. My song You Were Beautiful is dedicated to Alana, and my musical poem Assassinations is dedicated to her as well as Nathalie, Princess Diana and Princess Grace of Monaco (formerly Grace Kelly).
• Rosie Kane – a former Scottish Socialist Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow (she was second on the regional list and was elected due to the party getting over 15% of the vote at the 2003 Scottish parliamentary elections, partly due to my help coming up to Glasgow in that election campaign). She has done some very funny poems, some of which are collected in the More Revolutionary Witticisms book by Gregor Gall. I also seem to recall her singing at an SSP event but cannot be certain (in any case, reciting the odd poem at one of our gigs could be a good idea, even if she cannot sing). Since she is no longer in the Scottish parliament, she could be ready for a career change. I co-wrote a song called Walking Where The Roses Grow for Rosie (but removed it from this website in the run-up to the Scottish parliamentary election campaign, partly because some of the lyrics were rather naff!)

See my contact details at the top of this page, or turn up when I announce we are getting together for a practice/jamming session (announced on this website and on the galaxiamusic discussion group) if you are interested in joining Galaxia.

I set up the band initially in Manchester before the G8 summit in July 2005 at Gleneagles, Scotland, and recorded some tracks with Adam from the Cutting Rooms recording studio on acoustic guitar shortly before the summit (which you can fetch in MP3 format from the downloads page), calling for a worldwide general strike at the time of that G8 summit on the issue of poverty in the so-called Third World, but that may have triggered socialist revolutions. Action at that time, including the huge Make Poverty History demonstration in Edinburgh and the Live 8 concerts, forced significant change by world leaders and that issue fell down the agenda (until Bob Geldof exposed the fact that G8 leaders failed to carry out their promises after the most recent G8 summit took place in June 2007 in Germany).

I considered calling for a worldwide general strike at the time of the G8 summit too but did not feel that the mood was there for such a strike on that occasion. For arguments on the viability of a general strike call, visit my G8 summit worldwide general strike website.

I have repeatedly changed my most important song The Revolution Starts Now! to improve the politics and bring it up-to-date. The current version is renamed The Revolution Could Have Started Then! because it is historical, but I may go back to the original title in the event that a worldwide general strike at a future summit seems a good idea. Click here to read the updated lyrics. I need to do some further work on it, including pointing out that the revolution could actually have started much sooner than that G8 summit, after the anti-poll tax campaign led by the Militant Tendency, if it was not for infiltration by conspiratorial organisations on the side of big business.

I found it impossible to work out (due to vested interests on many different sides) to what extent the commitments made by G8 leaders at Gleneagles had been honoured, until Bob Geldof made his comments after the most recent summit (in Germany). Geldof revealed the massive extent of broken commitments made at the Gleneagles summit, and pointed out that they were promising a mere £1.5 billion more after discussions at the German summit. The other song I wrote for the Gleneagles summit, Do They Know It’s G8 Time? (to the tune of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?) may become a song to mobilise large numbers of ordinary working and middle class people around the world at the time of a later summit. On the other hand, there are other times, when a G8 summit is not on, when strike action would be useful to change the world, so I have modified that song to become Did They Know It Was G8 Time?

The history page of this website contains more information about Galaxia’s history including the origin of the band’s name in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series.

I have written quite a lot of new songs, including political love songs as well as purely political ones, and have put their lyrics on this website.

I have done some recordings on my own, consisting of musical poetry and unaccompanied Galaxia songs, and placed them on the musical poetry page of my socialist website.

All the tracks on this website and my socialist website, and the lyrics of my songs, are copyleft – as defined by the GNU Free Software Foundation – encouraging not-for-profit duplication but forbidding it for commercial purposes. Whether we continue in this way will be decided collectively.

I had planned to establish an organisation called the Galaxia Foundation for the World Socialist Revolution or the Galaxia Foundation for Socialist Change, to distribute all the proceeds of CD sales, commercial downloads, T-shirt sales, gigs (except for those that are benefits for particular organisations), etc., except for expenses and wages. I set up another “Foundation” in January 2007 that may be able to fulfil that task better. It is the Foundation for PR-based Socialism, which is intended to act conspiratorially and infiltrate many different organisations in society. It will probably remain mainly based in cyberspace, but have cells or branches in some areas. This Foundation, or perhaps its Glasgow branch, may be the best body to decide how proceeds are distributed. Using this Foundation would have the advantage of being more specific about the sort of society that we are encouraging (a form of socialism based on proportional representation by single transferable vote where everyone is in control rather than just the working class as Marxists advocate) and could involve more people in decisions of how to use the money than would be the case with a Foundation just for Galaxia. As many of you will have noticed, the word “Foundation” is very appropriate for the funding organisation, due to the origin of Galaxia’s name in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series.

I will strongly argue, assuming we use the name “Galaxia” for the band, that we should just be paid wages if we make any money at all out of the band, since I have said that it will be a non-profit making organisation (and set up a “.org” website address accordingly). We may just be paid expenses or not paid at all. If we are paid wages then perhaps we should restrict ourselves to an average worker’s wage.

However, deciding what we do with the proceeds of the band should be a joint decision, delayed until we first get together, and I do not want to be too prescriptive in advance of that. Perhaps band members will decide that we should be free to make decisions individually about what to do with our shares of the proceeds. I am now identifying with the middle class as well as the working class, and regarding an ethical capitalist revolution as the most important thing as far as solving the world’s problems are concerned, so I am not now as convinced about the idea of living on a worker’s wage as I once was. I regard my personal assets primarily as in investment for the (socialist or ethical capitalist) revolution, although I do use some of it for personal enjoyment. Partly depending on the size of a Foundation distributing proceeds, I may want to choose which organisations I want to help, rather than having the Foundation make all such decisions. Having said that, I would still like to make large donations to such a Foundation if or when I start receiving significant amounts of money from the band. I will strongly argue, if we decide to operate in this way, that the band should have a different name from “Galaxia” – perhaps “Red Day” or “Red Friday”. The band would also then need a new website address, which does not indicate that it is a non-profit making organisation.

Perhaps a better way of demonstrating that we are not in it for the money than saying that we are non-profit making is to sell our CDs cheaply, and put “Pay no more than” graphics on the front covers to ensure that shops don’t rip people off and take advantage of the cheap prices they have to pay for them to boost their profit margins. The alternative approach of publicising on the covers of CDs, or inside booklets accompanying them, that the proceeds are going to a particular Foundation could put shops off selling them.

These are all factors that we will need to consider, and I will be open to other people’s suggestions. There may be more than one band, based on different principles and with different band members – perhaps a non-profit making one first, which makes a fairly small amount of money and concentrates on placing stuff downloadable for free on the internet, with a more ambitious and popular band later which allows band members to choose how we use our shares of the proceeds.

Site map:

• Pictures – an image gallery of band members.
• Gigs – a list of gigs that we are planning. I would like us to go on tour with various artists/bands including Sandi Thom, the Bona Fide Project (a reggae band who were brilliant at the Independence First demonstration/concert in the run-up to the Scottish parliamentary elections), the Steve Skaith Band (Steve’s band with Latin American musicians after being a lead singer of Latin Quarter; I have created a latin-quarter-and-steve-skaith discussion group) and Martine McCutcheon.
• History – a history of Galaxia to date, plus information about the origin of the band’s name in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series.
• Downloads – Galaxia tracks that can be downloaded free of charge. Many more tracks can be downloaded from Steve Wallis’ musical poetry page.
• Lyrics – lyrics for Galaxia/Red Day songs that we have recorded or may record in the future. Brief explanations are provided for each song on the lyrics page. You can find links to recordings of the songs on that page or on pages containing the lyrics of particular songs.
  • Feed The World (formerly called Radio Africa) – lyrics (soon to be recorded by Red Day).
  • The Revolution Starts Now! – as originally recorded, or as improved since, renamed The Revolution Could Have Started Then! (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Do They Know It’s G8 Time? – as originally recorded, or as improved since (with an explanation for the improvements here).
  • The World Is Planned – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Global Warming Bluff – lyrics (an earlier version of which was recorded as a musical poem).
  • You’re a rebel – lyrics (an earlier version of which was recorded as a musical poem).
  • Fairytale of New York – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • On My Own – lyrics (an earlier version of which was recorded as a musical poem).
  • Wonderwall – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • The Surveillance State – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Stuck With You – lyrics (not yet recorded).
  • Angels – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • I wish Cath was a folk rocker (with flowers in her hair) – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Belly Of The Beast – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • I Know Her Quite Well – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Does it matter if God exists? – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Poll Tax Victory – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • The Socialist Throng – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • The Fugitive – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • You Were Beautiful – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • You’re Beautiful – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • I Don’t Look Back In Anger – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Kingston Quay – lyrics (not yet recorded).
  • Livin’ La Vida Loca – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Socialist Chameleon – lyrics (not yet recorded).
  • George Bush’s Army – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Talking About A Revolution – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • What Can I Do? – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Radio Romance – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Missing You – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Smile – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Like A Prayer – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • 99 Blue Balloons – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • The Colourscheme – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Resurrection – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Think Of Me – lyrics (an earlier version of which was recorded as a musical poem).
  • The Power Of Love – lyrics (recorded as a musical poem).
  • Optimism – lyrics (a new Red Day song yet to be recorded).
  • Transsexuals Of The World Unite – lyrics (a new Red Day song yet to be recorded).
  • Even Jesus Needed A Lover – lyrics (a new Red Day song yet to be recorded).
• Songbooks – books of Galaxia song lyrics that you can download, print out and distribute.
• Discussion forums – forums on the internet on which you can discuss Galaxia.

This website was last modified on the 31st of March 2008.