Artists and politicians never work well together for long. It's sad really, because beyond the obvious differences in the daily graft, they have a whole heap in common. Both are capable of — indeed, often driven by pure ideals, the pursuit of which sometimes necessitates a dip in waters that are greasy and uninviting. Both inhabit industries that are factionalised, booby-trapped, clannish. Irrigated with gossip and funny money, and runnels of influence invisible to the naked eye. Pockmarked with unorthodox folk ranging from geniuses down through visionaries and maddies to the lower sediment: chancers, grifters and vendors of the purest...