18th October 2020

 In the 1950s my mother took me to see a film called The Jolson Story, an idealised biopic about an extraordinary singer. Jolson, a US immigrant from Russia, challenged the musical stereotypes of the age by converting black Afro rhythms into a format that white people could understand and enjoy. In the film there’s a scene where Jolson tries to jazz up the traditional barber-shop harmonies. After the show, the impressario Lew Dockstader fires Jolson, saying ‘This is how we’ve always sung it and we’re not gonna change.’ 70 years later, in the footballing world, England Manager Southgate - faced with his team losing - refuses to bring on a player called Grealish, a footballer with an extraordinary ability. Traditional, waistcoat-wearing Southgate - like Dockstader - says ‘This is how my team have always played and we’re not going to change.’  In this life, faced with the terrible problems we’re all experiencing, it’s time to confront the traditional and embrace the extraordinary.