THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Noriega was an opera fan.  Instead of Verdi, he got a psyops playlist that included Billy Idol’s ‘Flesh for Fantasy’, ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ by Guns N’ Roses, ‘God Bless the USA’ by Lee Greenwood, ‘We’re Not Going to Take It’ by Twisted Sister, several songs by the Doors: ‘Strange Days’, ‘People Are Strange’, ‘The End War Pigs’ by Black Sabbath, ‘Electric Spanking of War Babies’ by Funkadelic, and most worryingly of all: ‘If I Had a Rocket Launcher’ by Bruce Cockburn.  Faced with the sanity-destroying power of middle-American mallrat music, Noriega surrendered.

Haynes/Guardian