2 min read
ByTracy-Ann Oberman, Tracy-Ann Oberman
This is a tale of two Alisons and how their paths recently "crossed". Both stir up memories of the 1980s for me.
The first Alison is Alison Moyet, the brilliant singer-songwriter who first came into the limelight with Yazoo and has gone on to become one of the UK's most respected solo artists. Her album sales alone have topped the 23 million mark and her bluesy haunting voice was one of the primary soundtracks to my undergraduate years. Only You, Don't Go and Situation were practically on a virtual loop on my Walkman. She is a true artist.
The second Alison in this tale also considers herself to be an artist. I will only refer to her as Alison B as publishing her full name will give her notoriety and I don't want to supply any oxygen to a fame she craves. This Alison is also a singer–songwriter of sorts. And in her own way she brings back the '80s for me.
She's a ferocious Jeremy Corbyn supporter (sorry Jezza I know you can't be held responsible for your supporters but this is certainly one you can well do without) but her far left support isn't the '80s throwback I'm referring to. I'm thinking more David Irving, the revisionist historian who got cocky and loud in the late 1980s about his views on the Holocaust and ended up discredited and reviled in a big fat court case with a jail sentence to boot.
So, you see, there is something quite retro about Alison B. For, like Irving, who once wrote a nursery rhyme for his daughter - "I am a baby Aryan, Not Jewish or Sectarian" - she writes ditties about "the so-called Holocaust" under the heading on her blog "Why do so many people believe in the Holocaust Myth". Ms B is obsessed with the Holocaust. And Jews. Oh, and of course Israel.
She said it wasn't 'nice' to be called names. How we laughed.
People who have met Alison B say that she has issues. Well, you'd have to, to pen "The Holocaust is not just a lie, it's a crime, so here's my song 'Survivors'".
If so, I pity her and I hope she gets help. But this doesn't really excuse the truly vile things she puts out into the public domain.
This week, however, that domain came and bit her back, hard, and in the form of Alison Moyet, whom the Lesser Talented Alison has stated she admires. The fantastic Ms Moyet picked her up on Twitter and called her "Indefensible. Intolerable and Wicked. A huge Vat of Pus." Alison B got offended and upset saying she felt bullied. Social Media had a field day with that bit of double think. Alison B said it wasn't "nice" to be called names. Oh, how we laughed.
I've long admired Alison Moyet. She's an activist, a feminist and brilliant writer as well as brave. And she's now called Ms B out for what she is, publicly and loudly.
Back in 2014, a show by an Israeli Hip Hop act was cancelled at the Edinburgh Fringe after a very public and loud call from 50 Scottish writers and artists to ban them. Where were these 50 when Alison B managed to get herself a venue at the Scottish festival in 2015 and stood proudly outside Edinburgh castle performing the Neo Nazi "quenelle" salute? According to Ms B she was even booked to perform again this year. Could those 50 Scottish Writers and Artists have closed a blind eye to such an offensive act because they see mocking the Holocaust as almost acceptable because Ms B holds such strong anti-Israel sentiments? Is that how it goes these days? I almost long for the '80s.