BANDS & LOCAL ANTI-RACISTS RUSH TO GET INVOLVED WITH LMHR ROTHERHAM CARNIVAL
By Phil Turner, Rotherham Advertiser.
A FLOOD of support has poured in for the Love Music Hate Racism carnival in response to the election of two BNP councillors in Rotherham.
After being exclusively revealed in the Advertiser last week, a host of local bands are queuing up to join huge names playing at the September festival.
Leading figures in British music are taking part in an expected 4,000-strong carnival in Rotherham in response to the election of the councillors.
Organisers of the all-day event at Magna on September 6 say that they have been inundated with offers of help, after the Advertiser revealed the monster show last week.
“There’s been a fantastic response to the event, especially from young people in Rotherham,” said a Rotherham LMHR spokesman. “We’ve also had loads of offers from bands in Rotherham and South Yorkshire volunteering to get involved.
“This is part of a year-long campaign that includes the Rotherham Show in September, regular stalls in the town centre, a national demo in June, plus an open-air northern carnival next year.”
Maltby band Pirouettes were among the first to want to get involved.
“We now have BNP councillors in Rotherham and we want to show everybody that we want to do something to stop them in our area,” said band member William Ridge.
Members of the Arctic Monkeys, Reverend and the Makers, Babyshambles, plus Richard Hawley, are spearheading the event under the banner of Love Music Hate Racism.
Jon McClure, aka The Reverend, of the Sheffield-based band, has said that the all-day gig at the Magna Centre aimed to urge Rotherham residents to spurn the BNP after their election victories.
A stall will be set up in All Saints’ Square on Saturday between noon and 2pm.
News of the Magna gig has already reached a national audience with items in the New Musical Express magazine and its website this week.
Scores of bands and individuals offered help and support through a Facebook group, which now has more than 600 members.
Trade unions are also sponsoring the event, which will run from 3pm to midnight.
Coaches are also being booked from Rotherham for a national LMHR and Unite Against Fascism demonstration and carnival parade in London on Saturday, June 21.
The demonstration will launch a year-long local anti-BNP campaign in the run-up to next year’s European Parliament elections.
q For more information contact rotherhamLMHR@googlemail.com or lovemusichateracism.com
