Youth CND Rock the Bomb Festival for Peace, Brockwell Park 1983

My first ever visit to Brixton, where I later lived, was on May 7th 1983 when I came to Brockwell Park  for the Youth CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) 'Rock the  Bomb Festival for Peace'. The day started out with a march from the Victoria Embankment to the Park led by the 'Youth CND - a future without fear' banner.

According to Socialst Action around 20,000 people took part in the march, with up to 60,000 in the park ('60,000 rock the bomb, 13 May 1983). I must have been near the front of the march because I remember seeing The Damned play (including Smash it Up and Love Song) and I know that a lot of people missed them as the march was still coming into the park. That left a lot of disgruntled punks moaning and throwing mud at other acts.

The festival also featured Clint Eastwood and General Saint, Hazel O'Connor, Madness and the Style Council. I was excited by the latter as I had been to the Jam's last London gig at Wembley in the previous December, and this was the first London outing for Weller's new band. They played two numbers, which were to be their first two singles - 'Speak Like a Child' and 'Money go Round'. 

Style Council on stage in Brockwell Park, May 1983

'Let Europe Dance. Our Future in Nuclear-Free'

The festival was sponsored by the left wing and soon to be abolished Greater London Council, who put on some great festivals in London parks in that period

More details at https://www.ukrockfestivals.com/glc-peace-festivals.html

 

Protest Behaviour not Protest Songs? Jeremy Deller on free parties

Aaron Trinder's 'Free Party: a folk history'  is a documentary telling the story - or at least some of the stories - of the 1980s/90s free party scene. There is a particular focus on the crossover with the earlier free festival /traveller movement,  cross pollinated at Glastonbury and giving rise to Castlemorton in 1992 and much more besides. Interesting interviews feature with people involved at the time with sound systems including Spiral Tribe, Circus Warp, Bedlam and Nottingham's DiY. These help us to see free parties in a longer term historical context - for instance people involved with DiY had previously been involved in hunt sabbing and anarchist activism; Steve Bedlam remains active today with Refugee Community Kitchen.

A recent online fundraiser for the film, with the aim of securing a wider release, featured some additional material including a discussion between Aaron and artist Jeremy Deller. The latter mentions going to Reclaim the Streets parties and reflects on the wider politics of free parties and raves:

'that's what's dangerous when things get joined up. Which never really happened with punk, punk was burnt out so quickly, like two years - gone. Then it was just like bands with Top of the Pops. Dance music affected the whole country, it linked up  with other people, so it was massively political. The songs weren't necessarily but it was the context of what you were doing, and who you were meeting and how you got there. In a way they were more scary, they weren't protest songs but protest behaviour... it's what the state really really  fears, it's people meeting up, forming groups, then those people form bigger groups, it's something you can't really control',