Opposing the National Front in Hitchin, 1971

Today, as in the past, the fight against the far right has to be taken to small towns as well as to city streets. Back in 1971, the town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire was one such place. On this occasion the openly racist National Front had been refused permission for a rally in London's Trafalgar Square so they landed 40 miles north in Hitchin instead. On 27 March 1971 around 400 NF supporters from around the country took part, countered by between 1,000 and 2,000 anti-racists mobilised by Hitchin Indian Workers Association and other groups. The NF were led by a pipe band from Wolverhampton (something the local Wolverhampton seemed almost proud of - see below!). Smoke bombs were thrown into their ranks as they passed.

 

'Let us uphold human dignity' - Hitchin IWA placard

Socialist Worker, 3 April 1971

(photos from there too)

(I grew up not far away in Luton and at the end of the 1970s got involved in countering the National Front there - see earlier post)

Farewell Mark Astronaut

photo from Astronauts on facebook

Sad to hear of the death this week of Mark Astronaut (Mark Wilkins). I saw his band The Astronauts a number of times in the mid-1980s playing at anarcho-punk gigs, I believe for the first time at the Blockers Arms in Luton in February 1985 which I noted in my diary: 'really good, songs a bit like the early Bowie meets The Mob with a sense of humour, e.g. 'this one's about urban disintegration - it's also about darts'.  Also remember a gig in Mark's home town of Welwyn Garden City, again with Karma and Hertford indie-poppers The McTells and at various squat gigs in London. 

The Astronauts kept at it with various line ups from the later 1970s through to this year, to those in the know Mark was one of the great lost songwriters but they were perhaps too unique to fit in with any particular scene.  On the anarcho-punk scene for instance their folky melodies were a bit of an anomaly, though All the Madmen records did release their great 'It's All Done by Mirrors' album in 1983. 

image from discogs

Like many bands in that period they played various benefit gigs including one  with the Redskins for striking miners at  Welwyn's Woodhall Community Centre in 1984. Earlier in 1979, under the name Restricted Hours, they had contributed to a Stevenage Rock Against Racism EP

image from Discogs

Last year in November I went to one of my first post-Covid gigs at the New Cross Inn in SE London, to see another set of anarcho-punk survivors Zounds supported by Hagar the Womb. I saw a long haired figure with a covid mask on and immediately recognised Mark Astronaut who I hadn't seen for 30 years. He joined Zounds on stage for a guest vocal on You Can't Cheat Karma, and I chatted to him briefly afterwards before he headed off to get his train back to Welwyn. He told me that the Astronauts had some gigs coming up and that a book about him was coming out soon - I haven't got round to getting a copy yet of Survivors - 45 years of the Astronauts, but by all accounts its a great history not just of the band but of the punk/alternative scenes around his part of the world. 

Mark Astronaut with Zounds at New Cross Inn in November 2021

I went to see The Astronauts at Club 85 in Hitchin only a few weeks ago, playing with Blyth Power and Pog. They were great, nobody knew then that would be one of his last gigs. So long and thank you Peter Pan of the suburbs.

The Astronauts at Club 85 in Hitchin in May 2022

 

See also

https://thehippiesnowwearblack.org.uk/2022/07/11/mark-wilkins-founder-member-and-frontman-of-the-astronauts-dies/