Birmingham has played a central role in the history of Rock Against Racism albeit not a role it may wanted to be associated with. In 1968, the Conservative MP Enoch Powell made his “Birmingham speech’ more widely referred to as the ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in which he spoke about immigration in the UK. In 1976, Eric Clapton was playing at the Birmingham Odeon when he spoke of his support for Powell and his views. The outburst was captured here:
As a reaction to this, Rock Against Racism was started and of course Steel Pulse played at the now legendary Victoria Park event in 1978.
The coordinators of Birmingham RAR were Annie Bearfield and Cynthia Woodhouse ( now deceased). Cynthia and Annie ran a RAR club at Digbeth Civic Hall and at other places across the city, such as The Star Club and The Mermaid. Barry Coleman did a lot of the art work for posters which were printed at SPAM, Saltley Print and Media.
Rock Against Racism (RAR) was a campaign set up in the United Kingdom in 1976 as a response to an increase in racial conflict and the growth of white nationalist groups such as the National Front. The campaign involved pop, rock, Punk Rock and reggae musicians staging concerts with an anti-racist theme, in order to discourage young people from embracing racist views. The campaign was founded, in part, as a response to statements and activities by well-known rock musicians that were widely regarded as racist.
History
Originally conceived as a one-off concert with a message against racism, Rock Against Racism was founded in 1976 by Red Saunders, Roger Huddle and others. According to Huddle, “it remained just an idea until August 1976” when Eric Clapton made a drunken declaration of support for former Conservative minister Enoch Powell (known for his anti-immigration Rivers of Blood speech) at a concert in Birmingham.[2] Clapton told the crowd that England had “become overcrowded” and that they should vote for Powell to stop Britain from becoming “a black colony”. He also told the audience that Britain should “get the foreigners out, get the wogs out, get the coons out”, and then he repeatedly shouted the National Front slogan “Keep Britain White”.
Huddle, Saunders and two members of Kartoon Klowns responded by writing a letter to NME expressing their opposition to Clapton’s comments, which they claimed were “all the more disgusting because he had his first hit with a cover of reggae star Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” … Come on Eric… Own up. Half your music is black. Who shot the Sheriff, Eric? It sure as hell wasn’t you!”. At the end of the letter, they called for people to help form a movement called Rock Against Racism, and they report that they received hundreds of replies.
Clapton later claimed that his remarks were made as a joke, and that he did not know anything about politics at the time. In a 2007 interview, however, he said he still supports Powell, and that he doesn’t view Powell as a racist.
Further support for RAR came after David Bowie, speaking as The Thin White Duke, his persona at the time, made statements that expressed support for fascism and perceived admiration for Adolf Hitler in interviews with Playboy, NME and a Swedish publication. Bowie was quoted as saying: “Britain is ready for a fascist leader… I think Britain could benefit from a fascist leader. After all, fascism is really nationalism… I believe very strongly in fascism, people have always responded with greater efficiency under a regimental leadership.” He was also quoted as saying: “Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars” and “You’ve got to have an extreme right front come up and sweep everything off its feet and tidy everything up.” Bowie caused further controversy by allegedly making a Nazi salute while riding in a convertible, although Bowie has always strongly denied this, insisting that a photographer simply caught him in the middle of waving. This claim seems to be borne out by existing footage of the event.
Bowie later retracted and apologised for his statements, blaming them on a combination of an obsession with occultism, the Thule Society and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as his excessive drug use at the time. He said: “I have made my two or three glib, theatrical observations on English society and the only thing I can now counter with is to state that I am NOT a fascist.”
RAR’s first activity was a concert featuring Carol Grimes as lead artist, and it also launched the fanzine Temporary Hoarding.[citation needed. In spring 1978, 100,000 people marched six miles from Trafalgar Square to the East End of London (a National Front hotspot) for an open-air music festival organized by RAR and the Anti-Nazi League, to counteract the growing wave of racist attacks in the UK. The concert featured The Clash, Buzzcocks, Steel Pulse, X-Ray Spex, The Ruts, Sham 69, Generation X and the Tom Robinson Band. There was a second march and concert at Brockwell Park in south London, featuring Stiff Little Fingers, Aswad and Elvis Costello. In autumn of the same year, an audience of 25,000 came to the Northern Carnival in Manchester, for a concert featuring Buzzcocks, Graham Parker and the Rumour, and Misty in Roots. In 1979, a concert was held at Acklam Hall in London, featuring Crisis, The Vapors and Beggar.
The group behind the original Rock Against Racism launched a new website on April 27, 2008.
RAR was reborn in 2002 as Love Music Hate Racism, with a concert at The Astoria in London, England featuring Mick Jones, Buzzcocks, and The Libertines.[citation needed] Other acts involved in the campaign include Ms. Dynamite and The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster. With a goal of counteracting the activities of organizations such as the National Front and the British National Party, it has held high-profile concerts in Trafalgar Square and Victoria Park as well as some other stadiums and venues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Against_Racism
There Are Currently 4 Comments for this Post
Hello
I just stumbled across your site. Just to let you know Martin Culverwell did not coordinate Birmingham RAR. Martin was involved as manager of the Au Pairs and as someone who was well integrated into the music scene in Brum.
There was a group of us who ran RAR and Martin was not one of them. The main drivers were myself and Cynthia Woodhouse ( now deceased). Cynthia and i ran RAR club at Digbeth Civic Hall and at other places across the city, such as The Star Club and The Mermaid. Barry Coleman did a lot of the art work for posters (though not the 2 on your site) which were printed at SPAM, Saltley Print and Media.
I wish Cynth was still alive because she had a phenomenal memory and I don’t!
Hi yes, I was in Digbeth with rock against racism in the late 70s and early 80s. We did lots of events and exhibitions. But mainly stopped the NAZIS.
Annie is mainly right although it was Martin Culverwell (now deceased) who initiated RAR in Birmingham. Early gigs including The Specials (I seem to remember Martin had to help with the bail of Neville Staples so that he could perform) at Birmingham Polytechic’s Westbourne Road site; Norton Hall, Saltley; and The Rainbow Suite, above the Co-op on Birmingham’s High Street. As Annie says Martin became manager of The Au Pairs and co-founded the independent record label 021.
Although still very committed to RAR, Martin handed over the record decks to myself and so with Annie and Cynthia as the RAR Club organisers I played, with the support of fellow volunteers (John ? and Lawrence?) the music between acts. Although I had a preference for playing The Gang of Four and the Mekons (records bought at Inferno) the most popular request was New Rose by the Dammed. Reggae featured highly including many tracks by Black Uhuru, Prince Fari and Dr Altimantado.
I also used to organise regular meetings of the local RAR volunteers which included Annie, Cynthia, Micky ?, Shez Garrett (editor of local Scrawl Fanzine and future editor of Face magazine) her school mate Kim ? and others that I sadly cannot remember. Paul Foad and Lesley Woods, from the Au Pairs were also regular attenders.
As far as the posters were concerned I cannot take all the credit. Wherever possible I tried to involve the bands and RAR volunteers whenever possible in the design, production and the fly posting. We reckoned that every poster posted would generate one audience member. Sadly, I have never come across any of the posters we produced.
One of the most memorable gigs involved UB40 at Digbeth Civic Hall. I understand it has been well documented by the Campbell brothers in their book ‘Blood and Fire’. The original billing included the Angelic Upstarts. However, following a recent stabbing incident involving the band’s manager in Wolverhampton, they did not turn up. The Au Pairs filled the spot at the last minute and together with UB40 played to a packed audience of mainly skinheads.
Happy days!
Dear Barry,
Please can you contact me via my email hampusone@gmail.com
I have a release called Voice Principles that I would love to chat to you about.
Kind regards