Brilliant doc on Arts the other night called "White Riot"
An energising film telling the story of a vital national protest movement - Rock Against Racism, formed in 1976 when a group of artists united to take on the National Front.
Archive footage and interviews with the people and artists involved, explained loads about the culture and political tensions of the time. It was fucking brilliant, it really was.
The doc explained each of the artists involvement and showed footage of their gigs and how they became involved in RAR. Sham 69 were really unlucky they came across as a far right band when they actually weren't anything of the sort. The footage from some of Sham's gigs was brutal. Skins everywhere chucking the Nazi salutes.
On the day of the RAR gig the crowd marched from Trafalgar Square to Victoria park. En-Route the national front loons were waiting outside a pub to kick-off. When they saw the sheer size of the crowd made up of Tens of thousands of punks, Hippies, Left wing groups and all manner of people from all over the country, they just fucked off back in the pub. All this is shown on archive footage.
The footage of Sham and The Clash performing White Riot at the end of the RAR gig was incredible. What a feeling it must of been to be there.
Really is well worth a watch on catch-up.
