Yes, I think he has no intention of retiring for good few years, he's only in his mid 50s. He's going to be on The One Show (BBC1) on 7th April btw, conducting the Aske's orchestra. Watch it!
Keef Wrote: >John Skinner the music teacher at Aske's was > a great guy, did a lot for us, and put in a > ridiculous amount of hours! He's still there, still completely committed and in his 25th year at Aske's
It definitely has gone downhill over the past few years, my little sis is in year 9 now and she is amazed at the rudeness of some (not all, of course) of the younger students. I too have found that the way the school deals with bullying could be much better. The music department is still really fantastic and enthusiastic though.
I agree about Paper Planes, in fact the whole of MIA's album KALA is like that - kind of sinister yet extremely catchy and humorous. She also uses a really big range of styles, featured artists etc. I'd definitely recommend it.
once I was on the bus in peckham and the driver got off and went into mcdonalds, only to appear a minute later holding a bag of fries. No joke. Reported it to tfl but I don't think they believed us.