Ed Husain's The Islamist, the memoir of a young East Ender whose parents came from the Indian sub-continent and who was drawn into radical Islam as a teenager, is an earnest, repetitive read but it does shed some light on why, for instance, so many of the girls at the school round the corner from the office wear headscarves. This is not the upholding of the tradition of their parents. It's a simple way of achieving some kind of prestige in a youth culture that's becoming increasingly about display. And it makes them more attractive to boys.
With you on this, I followed one of your competitors regular coverage of Americana bands and never found much to divert me. I do like Gillian Welch (apart from insisting on a hard G that is which is just silly) "Time the Revelator" is a good track as "Elvis Presley Blues". Hem I do like but they don't play up the faux "realness" too much and are open about being boho's from New York. The worst of the kind where an English Americana band who where truly awful. Are Americana acts any worse than rappers with business degrees going on about gang life?
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