Love Music Hate Racism

Last Thursday’s LMHR-organised Tribute to Anthony Walker gig was a big success.

A packed Liverpool Academy saw great performances from headliner Ms Dynamite, local heroes The Stands and Young Kof, new US rap sensation Lupe Fiasco, and crowd favourites Roll Deep. These were brilliantly supported by Anthony’s uncle’s reggae band Jahdeeanko, Gee Walker’s choir, local ‘urban’ choir One Heart One Voice, Liverpool dance school troupe Shockout and top local DJ Shinobi.

The entire Walker family were in attendance, and were delighted with the turnout and tone of the event, meeting and thanking all the performers in person, though with the trial of Anthony’s killers impending they felt unable to speak from the stage about the case.

Over 1,200 people packed into the venue. The crowd was unusually young and very mixed, and in a brilliant atmosphere responded equally loudly to every act on stage. This is the real face of multicultural Liverpool who clearly have a determination to take on the minority bent on propagating the racism in the area that led to Anthony’s death. A minutes’ silence for Anthony was impeccably observed. Speakers between the acts and the artists themselves all hammered home the message that we must unite to stop the racists, and hundreds signed up to get involved in LMHR and Unite Against Fascism, who also signed up people to go to this week’s demos against the BNP.
Speakers included major sponsorAmicus’sNational Equality Officer Siobhan Endean, CWU Gen.Sec. Billy Hayes, and the PCS’s northwest regional official Paul O’Connor. All three unions generously sponsored the costs of the event. Several thousand pounds have been raised by the gig for the Anthony Walker Memorial Fund.

There are now plans to stage regular LMHR gigs and club nights in Liverpool, with many local music promoters, musicians and music fans pledging to get involved - get in touch with us at lovemusichateracism@hotmail.com to be part of LMHR in the Liverpool area - or anywhere else.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 31st, 2005 at 3:46 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.