John and Yoko famously did two bed-ins for peace in 1969, firstly in Amsterdam during their honeymoon, and later in Montreal, drawing into their bedroom both the media and the top campaigning people of the time to draw attention to all sorts of anti-war and anti-greed causes.
All this week, Bez and partner Firouzeh have re-created the event with Bez's Bed In which has raised awareness of everything from anti-fracking to anti-TTIP, while putting forward positive alternatives with a parade of people at the forefront of protest giving their opinions.
Last night, John and Yoko's son, Sean Lennon, was interviewed on Skype by Bez and Forouzeh and gave the bed-in protest his support... "I think it's great" he said, while revealing "I was a big fan of Happy Mondays when I was growing up..."
During the interview Sean recounted the horrors of what the shale gas industry has done to the US, after he educated himself when frackers were proposing to put a pipeline through the village where he grew up and still has a studio...
"I kind of went into a panic because we had our own well water there" he explained "...I went to one of the frack proposal meetings in the town square and they were kind of bullying all these old lady farmers and being quite mean, so I just thought `I've really got to try and do something'...it was a last minute thing."
Within 15 days Artists Against Fracking had been born with a one hundred artists on board including Yoko, a website, the Don't Frack My Mother song and video, and a petition which eventually garnered 50,000 signatures from New Yorkers. Fracking was eventually banned in the state.
"I didn't know if we could win or not because it seemed as if we were up against the most powerful industry in the world" Sean recalled " ...I was a bit in shock when they said they were banning it outright because we didn't know if they were going to kick the can down the road and say `We have to keep researching to see if it can be done safely'...They say `We're going to regulate it into being safe' which is impossible...there's no way you can regulate it into being safe..."
Lennon talked about 60% of wells that leak into the water supply after thirty years, the millions of gallons of water that's used for the frack fluid – "basically this evil concoction of six thousand chemicals in a lubricant to make the drill not break when they're drilling down" – the billions of gallons of water that has to mixed with the hydraulic fluid and the "essentially toxic waste" that's left afterwards... "It's insane" he insisted "It's literally like the end of the world".
He compared the fracking areas of Pennsylvania, about an hour and a half away from his house, to Ground Zero... "giant roaring flames...burning methane into the air, all the animals are terrified...one of the worst thing about living in a fracking area is the sound; a 24 hour hissing but like a loud demonic hiss....I've met the families that have water on fire; that have brain lesions from the chemicals ...there's no way to repair the nature once it has been destroyed..."
Sean was horrified when Bez told him that IGas wants to frack three miles from the city centre of Manchester, at Barton Moss in Salford and Davyhulme in Trafford...
"It's totally going to destroy the health of the people..." he sighed, adding "There's a big lying campaign here. They spent $80million on an ad campaign to say that it was a clean gas but what you don't realise is that to get the fucking gas is the dirtiest thing ever; in many ways it's dirtier than the coal industry...That's what's terrifying for me, how able they are to completely lie to your face and people, understandably, believe it. I would have believed it if I hadn't educated myself."
Telling Sean about what's happening in the UK, Bez said "It's all being done in secret behind our backs, we're about educating the people as to what's really happening, and trying to prevent it before it actually happens."
"You've got to stop it" Sean responded, and talking about the green, clean renewable alternatives added, "The problem is that the industries that are clean are so much less powerful than Exxon, Shell and the gas companies, who are just like Sauron from Lord of the Rings; they're these evil kind of wizards...they really are psychopathic..."
Next up on the show were revelations that underlined what Sean Lennon was saying, Green Party candidate Bob Dennett disclosing an official Department of Energy and Climate Change government document called Implementing Geological Disposal, which he believed was the `bigger agenda' behind fracking...
"The government are planning to use all the bore holes that have been used for unconventional gas...when they've finished with them...and drilled hundreds more, they're going to stuff nuclear waste down them...They're going to turn the UK into a nuclear waste dump."
Bob said he has thousands of documents that substantiate the claim... "It's just bloody disgraceful" he said "They talk about public consultation but the thing that's missing out of public consultation is the public. They're not consulting us, they're just going to go ahead and destroy our country."
Bob explained that the government is trying to decommission Sellafield but there's nowhere to store the waste... "That's what all the hurry is for, everyone's panicking to get it done."
"It's worse than your worst nightmare" said Firouzeh...
See Bob's interview (54 minutes in) – click here
And see Sean Lennon's interview (32 minutes in) – click here
Tonight Bez's Bed In features Salford poet JB Barrington – the show starts at 9pm - click here
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