MIXING MUSIC AND POLITICS: RAR and LMHR
LMHR organiser Lee Billingham was interviewed by MA student Pedro de Barros for his thesis “How does music work to become a political form of communication when used by mass movements?”, using the success of Rock Against Racism and LMHR as a way of looking at the relationship between music and politics.
>First of all please say a bit briefly about yourself and what you do.
I’m Lee Billingham, I work full-time as an organiser for the Love Music Hate Racism campaign.
>How did the original Rock Against Racism come about, and what were its aims and reasons for being?
In a climate of increasing racism at refugees and black and Asian people, and following comments made onstage in 1976 by “blues” musician Eric Clapton in support of racist politician Enoch Powell, a group of activists wrote letters to the music press to say they were setting up RAR. They were deluged with responses, so a new movement was born. It aimed to use music to fight racism and fascism – particularly the then resurgent nazis of the National Front. Importantly, RAR was the cultural wing and also partial inspiration for, the Anti Nazi League, which successfully organised demos, protests and other forms of campaign against the Nazis.
>The forms of music used centred around punk & reggae? Why were these 2 forms the focus do you think?
Punk and reggae were a natural focus for RAR as the most rebellious and grassroots/DIY forms of music for black and white youth at the time; both forms of music also became very open to the idea of consciously mixing cultures and types of music.
>The current ‘Love Music Hate Racism’ campaign. How is it using music to produce social/political effects? Is it successful?
We follow the lead of RAR, but we believe we’re operating in more favourable circumstances. RAR pioneered putting black and white musicians together on a bill, whereas in the time since multiracial music scenes and acts have become the norm – I’m thinking in particular of ska/2-tone, jazz-funk, rave and more recently hip-hop/r&b/grime. So these multiracial cultural experiences already exist; what we want to do is to make the celebration and defence of multicultural society that these musics represent become more explicit, and thereby, as RAR did, use music events to inspire people to get more involved in the wider anti-racist/anti-fascist movement, with our sister campaign Unite Against Fascism playing a similar role to that which the Anti Nazi League did to RAR. Also LMHR wants to help make anti-racism popular and even fashionable and to make racism and fascism deeply unfashionable and shunned by all sections of youth and society. We want to make sure an atmosphere of anti-racism prevails, especially in areas where the BNP Nazis are trying to organise and stand in elections.
>What kind of effects does music have over an audience?
Not exactly sure what you mean by this – do you mean the music at a LMHR gig? In general, music makes you dance, sing, laugh, jump about, generally enjoy yourself. We want have events where people from all background do these things together. People working together, living together and playing together is a powerful force against racism.
>2) Have you ever been affected after a live performance to do or think something differently? If so, what show and what kind of effects?
I can’t remember specific examples but personally I know that music helped switch me onto looking at the world differently, whether directly as in political punk/hardcore music or someone Billy Bragg did for me in the 80s, or more as a feeling, as being part of the jungle scene did in the mid-to-late 90s. The effects were that the music I came across and liked both expressed a part of how I was feeling anyway but also told me something I didnt know and inspired me to look further into certain issues and into politics generally. With the rave scene and jungle it kind’ve proved to me in practice that my abstract ideas of anti-racism made total sense; coming from a very “white” town in the West Midlands I also hadn’t mixed with many black or Asian people my age. While working with people from different backgrounds made a difference I think going out and becoming mates with those people cemented the feeling that “race” shouldnt matter – “people are people” to put in simplistically.
>Rock Against Racism preceded the massive Live Aid concert. Do you think RAR was an influence in any way?
100% definitely. RAR preceded Live Aid but also things like Red Wedge, Rock the Vote and lots of other link-ups between music and politics in the 80s – it proved music could be a politically inspiring force.
>Did you watch Live 8 last year? What kind of success do you think it had in >fulfilling its aims and making political changes?
I watched bits of it, mainly for Pete Doherty’s performance! To be honest with you, I couldnt stand the whole Live8 thing – if its aims were to have a significant effect on world poverty, debt etc I think it’s been a dismal failure. The protests at the G8 summit and the movements involved in organising them (and I dont mean Make Poverty History) were far more important.
>Why do you think Live 8 was organised?
I think world leaders wanted to hijack and even lead the Make Poverty History campaign which had tapped into deep feelings among many people that world inequalities and trade rules are a disgrace. They wanted it to look like they really care about the world’s poor and that they are influencing other world leaders to do something. So they and the other leaders of MPH called in Geldof, Bono and Richard Curtis and tried to overshadow the genuine protests and marches with a great big celeb-fest. I also think the whole thing was vulgar and also disrespectful to the African musicians for example whose countries it was meant to be helping. It was a link-up between politics and music “from above” if you will. We are clear that our campaign is a grassroots one, and that change will only come from ordinary people and genuine musicians being actively involved.
>3) What kind of music do you associate as being more political? Why?
That’s a difficult question because most forms of music have political elements in them. Many types of music have popular/commercial wings as well as underground scenes which can be politically more radical. Also are we talking lyrically, explicitly political, or intrinsically political as I was talking about before? Finally, are we thinking about forms popular in “the West” or also including more local or indigenous “world” music? It’s a complex picture. hYou could pick out artists in most genres who are making “political” music – just off the top of my head from artists who’ve played for LMHR: Immortal Technique or Dead Prez (hip-hop), Bashy or Roll Deep (grime), Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly or Billy Bragg (indie/acoustic/emo), Capdown or Antiflag (punk), Ms Dynamite, Lowkey & Reveal (UK hip-hop), then you’ve got people like Steve Earle or Dixie Chicks, conscious reggae artists like Anthony B, Damian Marley or Capleton, even weird one-off pop songs like Black Eyed Peas “Where is the Love?”.
>Does ‘Love Music Hate Racism’ have a focus on particular forms of music, or a >music policy? If so why?
We dont have a music policy other than music which is good. We’ve had LMHR country n western gigs, jazz gigs, weird avant garde electronica stuff and so on. However, we do want our events to be successful and to draw in particularly young people who are music fans, so we do tend to focus of the popular forms – in the UK that means indie/punk/rock, hip-hop, r&b, bashment/dancehall, grime, and drum’n'bass. We try as much as possible to have an eclectic mix on our line-ups which will appeal to a wide range of people.
>Do you listen to lyrics in songs, or pay more attention to the music itself?
See my previous comments on this. Also though,you do notice political song lyrics. But – the music and song also has to be good for me; you can have the best lyric in the world but if the music’s crap then you’re not going to get it across – you might as well express what you’re trying to say in a poem or an article! As I’ve said, music without lyrics can also be very political, because of the context in which its produced and enjoyed.
>What do you think are some key ingredients for a successful social movement?
That’s a good question. Going away from what we’re doing for a minute, I think in the UK you have to look at the Stop the War movement. They organised the biggest ever demonstration in British history! Every single town and even village had some sort of Stop the War activity going on at the movement’s height; tens of thousands of schoolkids across the country walked out of school in protest, it was an amazing time. Some people argue that as we didnt stop the war(s) then StW wasnt successful but I think that’s rubbish. What the movement achieved was to link up anti-war feeling across the world – to ensure that people felt common cause from Cairo to London, Caracas to Seoul, LA to Bangalore. That in turn has made possible further global solidarity and meant that people especially in the Arab world knew that most people in the West were against the war – it’s our leaders who have the problem with them. Stop the War saw British Muslims fully involved in the country’s political life, which had made it much harder for the War on Terror to scapegoat them. Plus it’s still going on now, those networks are still there when people want to protest about the carnage in Lebanon and Palestine. Why was/is it successful? I think the main reason was that right at the beginning a key group of activists and organisations nailed down and agreed an essentially simple premise for the coalition. They made sure that every single group and individual who wanted to take part – could. There were old political hacks and tiny sects who tried to insist that Muslims and Muslim organisations shouldnt be a central part of the campaign (hard to believe that now!), or that only the trade unions and established political parties could lead it, or that marches and mass protest were ineffective and we should concentrate on more militant actions of a determined minority like invading airbases etc. Fortunately, all these people lost the argument, and because of that it meant that people across the country could simply take up the Stop the War slogan and idea and run with it, supported by but not needing to refer to an office before they could do something. Then the big demos brought everybody together and showed our collective strength.
I think RAR achieved something similar, in terms of a simple idea that struck a chord and had really broad appeal, and in that it was a real grassroots DIY movement. And that is what LMHR also aims to be.
