Rock Against Racism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rock Against Racism (RAR) was a campaign set up by Red Saunders, Roger Huddle and others in winter 1976. It was founded in response to racist comments and gestures made by David Bowie and Eric Clapton.

RAR was first concived as an idea for a one of gig against the rise of racism in the early 1970's by Roger Huddle and Red Saunders. According to Huddle, "it remained just an idea until August 1976, when Eric Clapton made a sickening drunken declaration of support for Enoch Powell (the racist former Tory minister famous for his 'rivers of blood' campaign against immigration) at a gig in Birmingham."^[1]

Clapton had said at a concert that England had "become overcrowded," and implored the crowd to vote for Enoch Powell to stop Britain from becoming "a black colony." In response to this Huddle and Saunders along with along with two members of Kartoon Klowns wrote a letter to the New Musical Express epressing their discust at Capton's comments which they claimed was "... all the more disgusting because he had his first hit with a cover of reggae star Bob Marley's 'I Shot the Sheriff'". At the end of the letter they called on people to join them in forming a new movement called 'Rock against racism' and they report that they received hundreds of replies.

Further support for RAR came as a reaction to the controversy caused by David Bowie when he stated thet "Britain is ready for a fascist leader" in an interview with the Playboy magazine, and by allegedly making a Nazi salute at one of his performances. Bowie later retracted the fascist comment, claiming it had been made as a result of substance abuse. He also denied making a Nazi salute, arguing that a photographer caught him in mid-wave.

RAR's first activity was a concert featuring Carol Grimes as lead artist. RAR also launched the fanzine Temporary Hoarding. In spring and autumn 1978, RAR organised two major music festivals with the Anti-Nazi League to fight the growing wave of racist attacks in the United Kingdom. First 80,000 — and then over 100,000 ^{[citation needed]} — people marched six miles from Trafalgar Square to East London (a National Front hotspot) for an open-air concert featuring The Clash (as seen in the film Rude Boy), The Buzzcocks, Steel Pulse, X-Ray Spex, The Ruts, Generation X and the Tom Robinson Band. Also 25,000 came to the Northern Carnival in Manchester, to a gig which had The Buzzcocks, Graham Parker and the Rumour, and Misty in Roots.