1970
WALK BY DAY FLY BY NIGHT * THE REGGAE BOYS * PRESSURE BEAT 5503 * UK
Pressure Beat had a total of fifteen issues running from 1970 - 1973, not the smallest but one of the shorter label runs from the early 1970s. The label, distributed by Trojan records, was an out-let for the productions of Joe Gibbs - the label name was the same as one of his Jamaican imprints - and all of the fifteen releases on the label were his productions. Walk By Day is a moral narrative which describes a character, who has no obvious official or habitual identity as a sufferer; but whether, in the judgment of The Reggae Boys, this is a good or a bad thing is not clear. What is clear is that in the guiding principles of the reconstituted socialist legislators, and their murky advisors, presently in government in the UK, the identity or more specifically INFORMATION on all aspects of every individual in the country is paramount. This information is to be gathered together in a form that is easily processed with sophisticated and classified computer soft-wear programs for the prime reason (leaving aside the requirements of global, or hyper, capitalism) of greater control. It will deliver unprecedented levels of feed back which will in turn give those same legislators the ability to increase control not only in minute detail in specific areas but will also mean the degrees of stealth performed on their behalf can be far better managed. At present two important planks of this penal complex are the so called identity card, and the road charging system, both of which will soon merge into a single concept. The 'identity card' is an official way of having all the information available on an individual in a memory chip that will soon be against the law not to have on one's person. The GPS tracking system - a system that will be run by the EU developed Galileo satellite, a system developed for road use charging (tax), unlike the American system which is free - which will effectively monitor the whereabouts of every car owning citizen in in the country and eventually on the entire European continent (it's an EU program not one of any individual, silly variegated hair or otherwise). At present the political climate, and possibly the technology, is not in place for the Galileo GPS system to be fitted in the 'identity card' but with the aid of the first phase of the card - outlined above - it will be quite easy to bring the necessary attitudes and climate for that to be achieved. The 'card' is being sold to the populace on the grounds of terrorism, the fight against criminals, and latterly identity theft - the bitter irony, or lie, is that it's all those millions of law abiding citizens that the government and global capitalism are really interested in and who's 'identity they will steal, is why the system is being implemented - the GPS 'road charging' system is currently being sold on the grounds of 'congestion' and environmental issues - the old carrot and stick. One final insult is not only are we to be trussed up in this informational straight-jacket by those we elect to create a better world for us, we are also going to have to pay for it ourselves, so nothing new there then.