People argue down the years whether punk was invented in New York or in London. Certainly there were punk rockers in New York before there were punk rockers in London. But British punk was a different animal, it was more dynamic, it was more revolutionary and the reason it was more revolutionary was because it had a strong political content, because of the situation in London in the mid 70s with the rise of the National Front and the confrontations on the street with black youth - the first generation of black youth to be born here. Who weren't gonna put their head down cause i remember this - they were going to stand and say to the Police: "We live here. This is our country." And that made British punk much more political.
And were it not for The Clash i may never have done anything political; the first thing i ever did was follow The Clash to Rock Against Racism.
And were it not for The Clash i may never have done anything political; the first thing i ever did was follow The Clash to Rock Against Racism.
Don Letts (BBC2 interview about Strummer's last concert)
So very true...
ReplyDelete:) Yeah
ReplyDeleteBBC've also outdone themselves with this, making it a very interesting experience; they've broadcast the concert spiced up with interviews of Joe and other people from his entourage.