How many of the below bands do I possess albums of? All of them excepting Sham 69.ġ) The Clash - "White Man In Hammersmith Palais" Time for another Rock Against Racism? I can't quite see any of the Simon Cowell created bands carrying it off. But they were replaced by other fascist and far-right groups and of course the anti-immigrant argument is being loudly trumpeted today by mainstream politicians. When the whole country swung to the right with Mrs Thatcher, the National front beset by splits and personality clashes faded away. It's impossible to measure what effect the campaign had, but it was most definitely a battle for the hearts and minds of British youth, to stop them being won over to the National Front's cause. There's a very good retrospective here containing some wonderful photos, so I'm just going to present videos of some of the bands who were involved, many like Ruts and Misty in Roots who went up and down the country touring with Rock Against Racism. David Bowie's iconography of the character of the Thin White Duke was also unfortunately timed, as he rode around in a limousine like a 1930s Fascist dictator from Mitteleuropa.
Eric Clapton, who seemingly was oblivious of the Afro-American blues roots of his own music, made some inflammatory anti-immigrant and racist statements from the stage during one of his gigs. Music turned its force on them partly due to a spark from their own industry. With the state of the UK economy they were beginning to make some political headway with the usual dreary simplistic argument of immigrants taking British jobs. Another protest group were the far-right political party (and in true Nazi tradition street fighting thugs) The National Front. Both were music of protest and in the late 1970s there was plenty in Britain to protest about. Reggae DJs played the music before the live bands in punk clubs. Groups like the Clash had grown up in multi-racial communities and been heavily influenced by reggae music and culture. Punk rock had very close ties with reggae. Marc Nash looks back at some of the bands involved in Rock Against Racism with a music video playlist.
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