Is the world being psychologically prepared for the Antichrist?

Are the movie moguls who run Hollywood Jewish, or are they Jewish, that is the burning question? Whenever I go to see a movie of late there is a constant theme right throughout the majority of them that seems to be preparing the audience for their Antichrist? Is this just my imagination running rampart or is there a general plot to brainwash the general public in preparation for the time when the New Age Messiah will appear? Sometimes the imaginary in these movies is so like it was especially designed for that specific purpose that it is uncanny.

The remake of the old John Wayne classic, True Grit, is the latest offering from Hollywoods (Jewish) Steven Spielberg which shows the main character Rooster Cockburn with his right eye covered as if to represent the one eyed Antichrist. One of the final scenes shows him cowering on his knees with the alleged child supporting actress clutched in his arms seemingly representative of the opposite to what we have seen represented in ancient works of art of typically showing the crucified Christ clutched in the arms of his earthly mother, Mary. NB: There is a lot more than that though, and if interested then go and take a look at the movie for yourself.

The opposite to this would be to would typically portray a small child in the arms of the one eyed man and could be a good way of representing the Antichrist as being the complete opposite to Christ, while still having him shown as being considered to be the saviour of the situation at that time.

This is not the first time that I have seen this type of representation of the one eyed Antichrist appearing in some of these Hollywood blockbusters. The first one that I can think of going back a number or years now with the one eyed Christ appearing in The Passion of the Christ, produced by Australia's own Mel Gibson.

The only difference that I can see in the instance of the two movies mentioned above is that this latest offering was produced by a Jew while the second movie mentioned was produced by a Roman Catholic who was anything other than pro Jewish, as Mel later went on an intoxicated triad against the Jews much to their bewilderment. The result being for Mel was that he feel out of favour with the heads of the studios and later on his career suffered as a result. There seems to be a common fate for those who choose to denigrate the Jews; the result always seems to be their downfall in one shape or another. We have seen this right throughout history in one shape or form, and in so many instances.

The late and great Barry R Smith spoke quite constantly relative to Albert Pike who had received a demonic vision to start three world wars. On January 22, 1870, Pike and one of his international co-conspirators, Guiseppe Mazzini, published the Plan which would establish the New World Order. This Plan was kept very secret, only within Freemasonry circles since the time of its inception, known only to fellow occult Illuminist conspirators. The secret Pike plan to control the world foresaw the need for three world wars.

Stop here for a moment to remember the date of this prediction: January 22, 1870. This date is 44 years before the beginning of World War I. Once you understand the facts we are about to share with you and realize the length of time between this prediction and the beginning of its fulfilment, you can understand how supernatural forces were truly in command. Further, January 22, 1870, is occulticly significant also. The number 22 is one of the three important occultic primary numbers (11, 22, and 33). The Pike Plan to overthrow the Judeo-Christian Old World Order, and establish the Satanic New World Order foresaw the need for war. However, this war was not the type of warfare the world had seen historically. This war was to be on a much larger scale than history had ever recorded. This war was to be global, or world-wide.

Accordingly, there is a very strong possibility that what we are seeing unfolding in Egypt at the moment may be the beginning of that plan to start the Third World War from out of whose ashes the Man of Sin will come striding to take control of whatever is left over as a result of that war. There are certainly no doubts at all that the world is being psychologically prepared for that event, as I have testified to that reality above.

Is Australia ready for the Universal Internet ID that Barack Obama wants to impose on all Americans?

The Obama administration is developing a "universal Internet ID" program that would watch, track, monitor and potentially control your activity on the Internet.

These "trusted identities" are being touted as a way to increase safety and security on the Internet and as a way to eliminate the need for dozens of different usernames and passwords.

But is a universal Internet ID that is issued and controlled by the U.S. government really a good idea? Right now, Obama administration officials are trying to make it seem as non-threatening as possible.

They are insisting that it will not be mandatory. They are insisting that it would be impossible for hackers to steal the universal Internet identities. They are insisting that none of our personal information will be gathered or used by federal agencies.
But in light of how regularly the government has abused our liberties and freedoms in recent years in the name of "security", should we really believe what they are saying about this new universal Internet ID?
Perhaps to assuage concerns about "Big Brother", the Obama administration is proposing that the U.S. Commerce Department be the one to oversee these new universal Internet identities.
But how long do you think it would take for the Department of Homeland Security (along with several dozen other government agencies) to get involved in "administering" these "trusted identities"?
The potential for government abuse of such a system is absolutely staggering. As we have seen so many times over the past few years, when you give government bureaucrats an inch, often they end up taking several miles.
So what are some of the other potential problems of such a system? Well, by creating a "master key" to the Internet for each and every individual, if it is lost or stolen you could literally lose everything you have worked so hard for in a single day.
Imagine what could happen if a very evil hacker gained instant access to your bank account, your credit cards, your Paypal account, your email, your Facebook account, your Twitter account, your Ebay account, your Amazon account, your blogs, your websites and everything else of importance on the Internet that belongs to you.
Just imagine the damage that could be done.
In addition, it would only be a matter of time before this universal Internet ID becomes "a de facto national ID".
In fact, it is not hard to imagine that "in the name of security" Americans would soon be required to link the universal Internet ID to biometric information or even link it to a microchip implant of some sort.

Revelation Chapter 13, Verses 16 to 18 16And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Of course this new program is going to "start out as voluntary", but how many times before has the government introduced "voluntary" programs that later became mandatory?

Once this universal Internet ID is implemented, it is only going to be a matter of time until many different federal agencies and a significant percentage of large corporations begin demanding that people start using it.

Eventually it would become extremely difficult to function on the Internet without one. Once that point arrives, it would only be a very small step to make it mandatory for everyone.

Of course right now the Obama administration insists that it is "doing us a favor" by creating a system that would enable us to be able to get rid of the dozens of usernames and passwords that we all use now.

But what all of this really sounds like is the kind of Internet controls that are being imposed in places like China.

The truth is that a universal Internet ID would give the U.S. government more power to license, monitor and police the Internet than they have ever had before.

In fact, some talking heads on the major news networks are already touting this new identification system as a way to "tone down" the "vicious" rhetoric on the Internet.

Of course what that really means is that they want to shut up a lot of the dissenting voices out there because they are not "politically correct" and they don't agree with the version of the "truth" that the establishment media is constantly pushing.

Hopefully the American people will realize that a universal Internet ID controlled by the government would be another gigantic step in the direction of becoming a Big Brother police state. Unfortunately, the American people have not been doing a great job of standing up for liberty and freedom at this point.

There was an initial uproar when the new "naked body scanners" were installed at U.S. airports and when airport officials started feeling up our private areas as part of the new "enhanced pat-downs", but most Americans seem to have accepted these "new security procedures" at this point.

So now the Obama administration is ready to push even further. They want to put a chokehold on the last great bastion of free speech in America - the Internet.

Someday if you have to get a license from the U.S. government to read articles like this or to write articles like this, don't say that you weren't warned. End of Quote

With the introduction of the national broadband network over here in Australia there are none of us who are convinced what this really is all about is faster download speeds.

That fact seems to be edified by the enormous amount of secrecy, security and cost involved relative to the introduction of this new system of optic fibre cable.

When I initially heard of the plan to spend a massive 45 billion dollars on something, which, at the end of the day did not really appear to be warranted at all, there were immediate suspicions being raised in my own mind relative to not only the cost, but the real rational behind the plan.

At first glance this seemed to be something to do with the forthcoming electronic cashless society leading onto the mark of the beast system of buying and selling involving a microchip implant under the skin.

Even though I really do not like to say I told you so, there are now real indicators beginning to emerge that my initial analogy may have been correct?

With the plan now being set into place for a Universal Internet ID system that could easily be linked to the microchip, there are no real doubts at all that there may have been something in my initial suspicions that has gone way beyond being nothing more than just another one of those conspiracy theories. Then of course once that system has been tried and adapted over in the U.S. there is nothing surer than the reality of it coming over here to Australia.

The video posted below is an excerpt from a CBS News report about these proposed universal Internet identities....

Does the recent tragic flooding event across the entire East Coast of Australia herald the restarting of Gods prophetic clock?

The news has now come to light that the recent and ongoing flooding disaster that has swept right across the entire East coast of Australia is not only the worst event of its kind that has ever hit Australia, but is also the worst natural disaster to have ever hit the general mainland of Australia, ever.

Even though the majority of those affected may have insurance cover, more than 80% of those who have been affected have no insurance whatsoever against the possibility of an event such as the one that has just happened, and in fact is still continuing on.

What that now means is that even though there are likely to be a large percentage of those affected will have mortgages over their properties and owe money to the banks, even though they have been inundated with water and have lost all of their worldly possessions they are still completely uncovered and will effectively lose everything they have ever worked for.

Accordingly, I decided to refer to the Holy Scriptures to see if there is any mention in the word relative to this massive flooding event to see if I may gain an insight into just where the world stands relative to the continuance of the current system.

I thought that Gods prophetic clock of Daniel Chapter 9, Verse 26 was a good place to start. Even though the 69th week ended in that chapter, there are still some real indicators with the recent flooding in not only Australia, (but of the other nations effected as well) that the prophetic clock may have started again.

Accordingly, if we are not in the end times after the signing off of the Climate Change/World Government treaty in Cancun Mexico then there does not seem to be a great deal of doubt we are right near the end of it all.

The treaty of Daniel Chapter 9, Verse 27 that heralds in the Daniels 70th week, (if not already signed) looks nigh on will at hand. After all, Palestine has already been recognized by Mexico and many other nations as being a separate state after the confirmation of the recent aforementioned treaty. Already the aforementioned treaty has been confirmed by the newly appointed EU President, Herman Van Rompuy.

The King James version of the Bible gives the world the clearest indicator yet of what may well be the veracity of the above statement particularly when we refer to this particular portion of the verse, and the end thereof shall be with a flood: the rest of that Chapter I have explained below.

Daniel Chapter 9 Verse 26
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Apart from the tragedy of the flooding event mentioned above, Daniel 9:26 gives us THREE MORE specific events that have been decreed to occur between the end of the 69th ‘seven’ (483 years) and the start of the final ‘seven’. That there is a time period gap between these is quite evident in the text. Three events are said to occur AFTER the 69th ‘seven’ but they are not included in the 70th ‘seven’ which is the subject of the next verse. Let’s have a look at these three events.

The Messiah will be cut off.
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:
This is what we have briefly looked at above but note a couple of extra things – Firstly, the word for ‘cut off’ is ‘karath’. It means to cut down or kill and is the same word used in Lev 7:27 for the death penalty. There is no doubt that this prophecy tells us that the Messiah would be executed. Secondly, the Bible says that He ‘will have nothing’. The Hebrew can also mean ‘but not for Himself’ and that is how it is translated in many Bibles. The Messiah would die… but He wouldn’t die for Himself. He would die for others. Amazing prophecy!

The Destruction of Jerusalem
the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
The second event decreed is the destruction of Jerusalem. Remember, this occurs after the end of the 69th week yet before the start of the 70th week. And yet this event occurred 40 years after Jesus was crucified. Again this shows that God ‘stopped the prophetic time clock’ with Israel’s rejection of their Messiah. The text says that the people of the coming ruler will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Note that it is the people not the ruler who do this. The ruler’s coming is said to be still future. We know from history that it was the Roman army that destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD after a 4 year long siege on the city. This ruler or ‘prince’ will be discussed later, but for now it is important to see that this coming ruler will be from the area held by the Roman Empire.

Continued War
and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
The third and final decree for after the 69th ‘seven’ and before the start of the 70th ‘seven’ is ongoing war and desolations for Jerusalem. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem! The most fought over city. From the time that Babylonians destroyed it in 586 BC it has been held by Greeks, the Romans, the Moslems, the Crusaders… and the conflict goes on today. The decree given by Gabriel is that war would continue right to the time of the end and history has verified that to be true.

World inches closer to recognizing 'Palestine'

By Ryan Jones

Israel was shocked to learn on Monday that Britain is seriously considering upgrading the status of the Palestinian Authority delegation in London to that of an official diplomatic mission, putting it basically on par with the delegations of sovereign states.

The news, which was first reported by Israel’s Ynet news portal, was especially surprising considering that Britain’s current conservative government is viewed as generally pro-Israel.
Britain is not the first European country to recognize Palestinian delegations as diplomatic missions. France, Spain and Portugal have all already done so.

Israel fears that the next step for the Europeans is to officially recognize “Palestine” as an independent state outside the framework of an Israeli-Palestinian final status peace agreement. Most of South America has already gone so far as to officially recognize “Palestine.”

The Palestinian Authority is playing off this worrying trend and is threatening seek official UN recognition for a unilateral declaration of independence if Israel does not meet all its demands.

If European Union powerhouses like Britain and France recognize a Palestinian state, the Palestinians are likely to have all the backing they need in the UN, forcing the hands of both Israel and the US, which is currently still opposed to the unilateral establishment of a Palestinian state.

The situation has reached this point because the Palestinians have managed to successfully reverse reality and paint Israel as a non-compliant peace partner.

With the international community so anxious to conclude a final status peace deal (even if it doesn’t lead to genuine peace), it is ready to give the Palestinians what they want, with or without Israel. End of Quote

There are no real doubts at all that the world now is right on the verge of a precipice relative to the remainder of the Bible prophecies comparative to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ back onto the earth.

If the facts spoken of above in the aforementioned article are to be taken into account with any real seriousness at all, then those who are not saved really are in for the times of their lives, (figuratively speaking) -- of that reality there are no real doubts at all.

The crux/or the base, of the end times lays with the signing of a seven year covenant between Israel and the Palestinians relative the troubling times that have been stirring around in those two tiny nations in the Middle East for the past hundred years or so.

Daniel 9:27 (King James Version)
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
If there was ever a separate state that was ever to be agreed upon for Palestine then there would be no doubts at all that the current difficulties relative to the current decades long crisis in the Middle East would be over and done with, finished, once and for all time. Consequently, that would herald the return of the Lord Jesus Christ back onto the earth.

What the aforementioned article infers is that even though there has never ever been the covenant mentioned in the prophecies that has ever been signed relative to Middle East peace, with the many nations of the earth recognizing the existence of a separate Palestinian state; effectively, what that now means is that even though there has never been a Middle East treaty agreed to on paper with a signature, because the world now sees Palestine as having their independence from Israel with a separate state, there is in actual fact a Middle East treaty now in place even though it is unofficial and is in name only.

Therefore, all that really needs to be put into place now is a signature on a piece of paper to make what is now unofficial, official.

Therefore, the pre tribulation theory of the rapture can now also be debunked for what it is as being nothing more than wild imaginings of someone's fertile imagination. There can be no further proof of this than the terrible reality of the wild and inclement weather conditions that have struck a major portion of the globe ever since there was a Climate Change/World Government treaty was agreed upon in Cancun Mexico recently.

As examples of those terrible weather conditions we need to look no further than the very recent conditions that have been hitting the United States, the UK, and now over the past few days the continent of Australia, my homeland.

As a result of this there are also no doubts at all that the world will be seeing more and more of similar treaties in times to come soon. Therefore, all that really needs to happen in the immediate future is for the newly appointed EU president to confirm the treaty mentioned above.

The list of false explanations and prophecies relative to certain unexplained events continues on unabated.

The following statement is an analogy of the way that I see the state of the modern day church and those within those churches relative to the Bible prophecies. Thus, it should be taken the general theme of the way that it was intended. It speaks in terms of the broad-spectrum of those who say they are Christians and has not been intended to target or attack any explicit individual or group of individuals specifically. Now read on!!!!

There are events that are taking place in the world right now, just as there are events that have been prophesied to come to pass in the future, that men are claiming have been written in the word of God for centuries, when there is nothing at all that has ever been written in the word of God relative to those said same events.

There are blackbirds falling out of the sky in the U.S. There are dead fishes that are being washed up onto shores in New Zealand. There has been wild fires running out of control in the land where the Lord walked when he was here on the earth amongst men, (Israel) There is speculation that those who have their names written down in the Lambs Book of Life are going to be suddenly whisked off the face of the earth and into Heaven, without having to pass from the life to the death experience first. (this is known as the rapture of the church) There is even wild and fanciful assumption the world must be divided up into ten sections before the Antichrist can be revealed, to thus take over those said same sections.

The list of false explanations and prophecies could go on and on as men try to make excuses for their own failed misunderstanding of the word of God, and then try and fill in the gaps with their own flimsy excuses and list of rationalizations relative to those events; and then say that those same events are mentioned in the word of God, when there is nothing that is mentioned in the word of God relative to those current and future events at all.

Those who are engaging in this form of mass trickery are doing nothing more than to engage in a game of deception relative to the Bible prophecies relative to the end of the age, (usually for their own financial benefit) as they make up things as they go along that are not there to begin with.

Therefore, no matter how much searching one is able to do there are never anything, anywhere, in the scriptures comparative to any of the events I have made mention of above or the numerous others that I possibly have never even thought of.

Brazil, Sweden and New Zealand hit with strange phenomena as speculation rages about the end times

The mass bird and fish die-offs that have affected parts of the U.S. over the last week have now gone global, with Sweden, Brazil and New Zealand becoming the latest countries to experience a phenomena that has sparked both scientific intrigue and apocalyptic panic in equal measure.

Following the sudden deaths of thousands of birds that fell over Beebe Arkansas on New Year’s Eve, in addition to 100,000 dead fish found along a 20-mile stretch between the Ozark Dam and Highway 109 Bridge in Franklin County, 500 dead blackbirds and starlings were subsequently discovered in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana.

Large numbers of dead birds were also found in Kentucky around Christmas and more were found in the following days. Earlier this week, tens of thousands of small fish were found washed up in the Chesapeake Bay area. Despite their deaths being blamed on a cold snap, experts are bewildered that the fish didn’t swim to warmer waters as would be their normal response.
In a separate report emailed to us by an Alex Jones Show listener, more dead birds were seen near St. Louis, Missouri.

“I just wanted to let Alex now that I encountered over a hundred blackbirds killed on Christmas Day. This was about 30 miles south of St. Louis, MO near highway 55. The intersection was covered with them,” states the email.

The phenomenon has now gone global, with dead jackdaw birds falling to their deaths across central Sweden shortly before midnight on Tuesday.

In New Zealand, hundreds of dead snapper have washed up on Coromandel beaches. The fish looked fat and healthy, ruling out the weather or starvation as a cause of death.

“People at Little Bay and Waikawau Bay, on the north-east of the peninsula, were stunned when children came out of the sea with armfuls of the fish and within minutes the shore was littered with them,” reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, 100 tons of fish (sardine, croaker and catfish) have turned up dead off the coast of Parana over the course of the last week.

“Apart from Paranaque, (Edmir Manoel) Ferreira said the dead fish are starting to appear in other coastal towns,” reports Parana Online. “The dead fish are going to Antonia, and Guaraqueçaba. We need an urgent solution to this,” he warned.

The number of different cases of dead birds and fish around the U.S. and globally has been matched by the myriad of different explanations as to the cause of their demise.

The more mundane causes are cited as fireworks, localized hail, power lines, or other temporary phenomena that caused the birds to panic and fly into one another. However, this doesn’t explain why similar events are occurring in different areas of the country or indeed the world and it doesn’t address the issue of mass fish deaths.

As we have documented, the primary suspects should always be governments given the fact that they have routinely engaged in secret testing of biological and electromagnetic weapons that have detrimentally impacted both humans and animals many times in the past.

Others point to the New Madrid fault zone coming to life again as a result of being disturbed by the BP oil spill and threatening the onset of a series of mega-earthquakes which will hit Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. Why this would be preceded by mass bird deaths is not properly explained.

An example of one of the more esoteric theories behind the die-offs was explained by controversial Pastor James David Manning, who labeled the phenomena a “Global Katrina 2,” and an act of “biological warfare,” voicing his belief that the strange sequence of die-offs was a harbinger of tribulation and the biblical end times.

Web searches for bible prophecies and end time scenarios have exploded as some Christians fear that the mass die-offs mark the beginning of a series of catastrophes.

“Internet keyword searches continue to register off the charts. Queries like “dead fish Bible,” dead birds and fish Revelation,” dead birds and fish die End Times.” were being entered by the million Tuesday,” writes Jim Hagerty, with forum moderators kept busy answering questions about the opening of the Seventh Seal and whether or not a great pestilence will follow soon.

It seems unavoidable that the closer we get to 2012 and the onset of the widely prophesied end times theory, where a series of cataclysmic or transformative events will coincide with the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mayan Long Count calendar, which will subsequently herald the end of the world or the beginning of a new spiritual age, that every bizarre event will be cited as evidence of this coming transformation.

The mass deaths of birds in particular strike a resonant chord within the human psyche for a number of sociological and cultural reasons, not least of which is the fact that they are often seen as an early warning system for harm that could later come to human beings, which of course is where the term “canary in the coal mine” originates.

Although mass die-offs of birds and fish are by no means unprecedented, any increase in their regularity will combine easily with 2012 fever to whip up more frenzy and wide-eyed speculation.

This in turn will distract millions of Americans from both real environmental crises that could be connected to the bird deaths, as well as very real political conspiracies and financial plots that continue to spell doomsday for the very existence of the American republic, with no reliance on idle speculation about Mayan calendars or 2012 end times prophecies.

While some theories are rooted in scientific verbiage, others have taken on an altogether more spiritual and apocalyptic context.

Gerry Rafferty, the Baker Street genius, bows out at 63

GERRY RAFFERTY - BAKER STREET - A TIMELESS CLASSIC

I was saddened to hear the news today of the passing of one of the greats of the music industry, Gerry Rafferty.

Even though his music has very little to do with the subject matter of this blog, the Bible prophecies, because I enjoyed his music so much I still felt the need to leave this tribute here as another testimony to the timeless and lasting legacy of the musical genius that was the man himself.

We'll walk down Baker Street together one day. R.I.P. Gerry.

By TRISTAN STEWART-ROBERTSON
GERRY Rafferty, one of Scotland's greatest singer- songwriters, has died, aged 63.
Rafferty, whose most famous work was the 1978 hit Baker Street, died following a long battle with alcoholism.

According to his daughter Martha, Rafferty died peacefully at home surrounded by family. He had been admitted to hospital in Bournemouth in November with liver failure.

The Scot was a member of Stealers Wheel, whose huge 1972 hit Stuck in the Middle With You underwent a renaissance after featuring in Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs in the 1990s.

Baker Street, with its distinctive saxophone solo, reached number 3 in the UK charts and No 2 in the US. Despite his success, however, Rafferty suffered from well documented problems with alcohol.

Fans paid tribute to the star last night as news of his death spread quickly. On website twitter one fan wrote: "Gerry Rafferty. Rest in Peace." Another fan said: "RIP Gerry Rafferty. Baker Street means so much to me."

Born in Paisley, Rafferty often recalled that, when he was a child, his mother would drag him round the streets of Glasgow, rather than risk his suffering violence at the hands of his Irish-born father, who would often come home drunk.

He cut his musical teeth as a busker on the streets of Glasgow, and first found modest success with Billy Connolly's folk group the Humblebums.

Rafferty started his career in a school band called the Mavericks, before working with Connolly. The comedian and Rafferty went their separate ways after two years, Connelly becoming a world-famous figure on TV and film, while the singer became one of Scotland's most notable musical talents.

He released a solo album in 1971 before founding Stealer's Wheel the following year. While Stealers Wheel enjoyed huge success with tracks such as Stuck In The Middle With You and Star, the group disbanded in 1975, leaving Rafferty free to pursue his solo career.

He had endured several professional disputes during his career, most notably a long- running contract disagreement with his former band members from Stealers Wheel.

It was in 1978 that Rafferty wrote Baker Street, the track that was recognised last October for having been played a staggering five million times worldwide. His most successful albums were 1978's City To City and Night Owl', released in 1979.

But despite his professional life going from strength to strength, Rafferty suffered from alcoholism, leading to the breakdown of his 20-year marriage to wife Carla in 1990.

Referring to their split, Carla said at the time: "There was no hope. I would never have left him if there had been a glimmer of a chance of him recovering."