Stop the City, London, March 1984

'Protest and Carnival against War, Oppression and Exploitation'

In 1983-84 the financial centre of London was the focus for a series of one day Stop the City protests. The first of these took place in September 1983 and was followed by a bigger one in March 1984. The protest in September 1984 was also substantial, but by then the police had got wise to the tactic and were more successful at imposing control through mass arrests. I took part in both of the 1984 events.

Stop the City was defined as a 'protest and carnival against war, oppression and exploitation'. There was no single organisation behind the actions, though London Greenpeace (an anarchist group distinct from the national environmental organisation) helped initiate it. The idea was that people would plan their own actions within the overall Stop the City framework. Stop the City wasn’t simply a punk protest. It also drew its energy from the radical fringes of the peace and animal rights movements and from the broader anarchist scene, as well as from some veterans of the earlier free festival counter culture. But it was through the anarcho-punk scene that a lot of the information circulated about Stop the City, and through which many people came together to organise themselves to get to London from all over the country.

What made Stop the City so exciting was this it didn’t play by the rules. There was no march along a prearranged route negotiated in advance with the police. No permission was asked for - instead people were invited to turn up and use their own creativity and imagination. In March 1984 a combination of numbers and innovative tactics gave the protesters the upper hand for much of the day. Rather than get caught up in ritual set piece confrontations with the police, there was endless movement with groups heading off in all directions and no direction, blocking traffic and forcing the police to spread themselves thinly. There was a tangible sense of power - it was the first time I had seen people de-arrested. Coming down Change Alley we came across some isolated cops trying to make arrests, but they were quickly surrounded by a big crowd and let people go. Instead of hanging around a load of us just ran off and found ourselves on London Bridge where we blocked the traffic until a lorry decided to call our bluff and drive straight towards us. Somebody kicked a Bentley or some other luxury car stuck in the traffic.

There was anti-nuclear street theatre, and people in City suits and bowler hats made out of bin liners carrying copies of the Financial Times with slogans written on them like “Read all about it- the bomb is coming” (actually courtesy of the IRA the bomb was coming to the city, but that was a few years later, and probably not what people had in mind). By the end of the day, the police were more in less back in control. Nearly 400 people had been arrested and many of the remainder were stuck in front of the Royal Exchange building surrounded by cops - nobody called it 'kettling' then, but that was what it amounted to.

'Stop the City - People not Profit'

The following report of Stop the City on March 29th 1984 comes from the anarchist paper Freedom, published in May 1984:

'Stop the City (Freedom, May 1984)

'For your future, for our future, STOP NOW’ (Anon)

'The City is the place where your money from taxes, savings and pension funds is invested, and you have no control over them’ (Islington Action Group)

'We believe it's time to put a stop to the suffering of millions of people around the world, suffering created by the same economic system that runs our lives. The City of London is at the heart of all this, it is the logical place for our protest’ (Leicester Green Affinity Group)

‘Women not only serve the boss at work, they also serve their husbands and children at home as cooks and cleaners. Not only do women work harder, we get no pay for half the work [housework]’ (Stop the City Women's Group)

‘What we are trying to do is point out the grim reality that lies behind the mask of normal daily life’ (Grays Anarchist Group)

‘Ten ways to wreck the micro-computer in your office:- 1. Pour coffee ( with salt instead of sugar in it) into the keyboard to gum up the works...’ (Free London)

‘Dear fellow commuter,...on an average commuter train, about 20 people are directly involved with producing goods for military use’ (anon)

‘What's going on? As you walk through the City area today you may see quite a few people involved in various forms of action aimed at exposing the nature of London's financial district. Do not be afraid of these people, they could be your friends... As we listen to EMI records, people in foreign lands listen to EMI weapons guidance systems... People need each other, not money!’ (anon)

‘We are claimants, and as claimants we are forced to live in misery and poverty because of the decisions made behind the doors of these institutions. It's not jobs we demand...but the right to a decent life for everyone.’ (Claimants Action Nottingham)

‘In countries where people used to grow their own food, they are now paid minimal wages to produce non-edible cash crops for western companies... if dissatisfaction with this system causes social unrest, the west sells the same countries arms with which to restore law and order. ’ (LSE CND)

'I am here today because... I want everyone in the world to be happy... because they are stealing my life away and selling it back at a profit... because a terrified animal dies unnecessarily every 6 seconds... because everything has been appropriated and we want it back... because they are giving the children guns and violence and destroying their innocence... ’ (Mike, Brambles Farm Peace Camp)

‘Look at this fucking world, it's not ours no more. It belongs to rich fascist scum who, unless they are stopped, are gonna blow it to shit. The time has come to stop holding back... No longer will we march ‘peacefully’ to Hyde Park. It’s banks what fund war, not parks!’ (Paul)

‘I, the Commissioner of Police for the City of London, by virtue of the powers conferred upon me by Section 22 of the City of London Police Act, 1839, as amended by Section 8 of the City of London (Various Powers) Act, 1956 for the purpose of keeping order order and preventing obstruction of the thoroughfares in the immediate neighbourhood of the Mansion House and Guildhall of the said City, the Royal Exchange, the Bank of England, the General Post Office and other places of public resort within the said City and liberties on the 29th March, 1984… hereby direct Constables on the on the 29th March, 1984 in the said thoroughfares:

1. To prevent the gathering together of persons within a group.

2. To disperse any group of persons which may gather together.

3. To direct any person found loitering to move.

4. To prevent any procession.

5. To prevent the deposit or any refuse, litter or other object.

6. To secure the removal of any refuse, litter or other object by the person the Constable has reason to believe is responsible for the deposit thereof.

7. To prevent the making of any unnecessary noise which the Constable has reason to believe causes, or contributes towards, disturbance of the peace.

Dated this 26th a day March 1984, The Commissioner of Police for the City of London'

'You failed totally!' (STC)

Last September, after 6 months of discussions and preparations around the country growing out of the actions against military bases, about 1,500 people came to Stop the City of London in protest against wars and arms trade profits. The success of that day in terms of communicating to workers, disrupting business, and creating a determined and festive event encouraged many others to join in preparations for another protest — on the day profits for the whole year were symbolically to be counted up - March 29th 1984.

Having been in the City, seen how it works, how all companies and banks are interlinked, it was decided this time to make a general protest against the profit system. This would be a chance for everyone involved in trying to change things - opposing the exploitation of women, of nature, of animals, opposing wars, repression and poverty, and the power of money over us - to come together on this appropriate day and challenge the financial heart of the country.

As a network grew, everyone encouraged each other to create the kind of day they wished, to protest about the things they felt most strongly about and in the way they wanted. A truly decentralised yet well co-ordinated attempt to Stop the City and reclaim it for people.

The week before, on March 22nd, there were local protests in financial centres of 7 or 8 towns with pickets, occupations, leafleting, graffiti, processions and music.

On the 29th, up to 3,000 people took part together in London and this is an attempt to get down on paper some of the amazing and diverse activities...

Stopping the City

7 - 8am, First Aid, creche and assembly points set up. Police divert all lorries from City. 30 cyclists set off to do a very slow tour of the streets and stop the traffic. Balcony of arms trading company in Holborn occupied by London Peace Action, banners and balloons.

8 - 9am, Green CND protests at Electricity Board HQ all day. St Paul's packed already, many go to Bank area. People try to block roads. March down Cannon Street, Threadneedle Street blocked. Radio reports. People at Stock Exchange forced to move on. Women's action at Bank of England to protest about unpaid domestic exploitation foiled by police — continue to leaflet nearby. Many groups all over City, leafleting, dressed up, with placards, puppets, games, etc.

9 - 10am, 500 people at Royal Exchange. Police try to split people up. Leafleting and smoke flare in Bank tube station. 150 people disrupt Leadenhall meat market against animal exploitation. People continue to assemble at Bank - up to 1,000 - police try to block everyone in and keep traffic moving. Hundreds of cars begin to be quietly immobilised in car parks (all day). Free vegan food distributed for hours at St Paul's. Many locks glued up throughout the day.

10 – 11 am, The crowd who’d taken over the front of the Royal Exchange resist police efforts to force people out, wooden barrier collapses. People then hemmed in, police using horses. Lots of noise. Everywhere workers look from windows. Group go to do Fleet Street action — too many police. Spirits still high everywhere despite police violence. Lots of graffiti. Anti-nuclear street theatre at Nat West Tower. People enter banks to open and close accounts. A couple of groups walk back and forth over zebra crossings.

11 – 12 am, American, Russian and British flags burned at Bank. 3-400 march around fur trade area. 100 people break out of police cordon at Royal Exchange and attack windows of financial institutions — Barclays, Navigation House, Nat West and 30 other places. Car overturned as barricade and constant moving means police unable to stop action. Smoke flares, paint thrown etc. Securicor van too heavy to turn over, Roll Royce which tries to run someone over is wrecked. Still hundreds at St Paul's, and others running excitedly around (for fun!). Leafleting at Bank tube station continues.

12 - 1pm, Anti-apartheid picket of Barclays forced to move, so visit nearby branches. Jugglers, singers, puppeteers also threatened and police try to clear Bank again. Traffic blocked. Quiet for a while. A group take 2,000 leaflets to Greater London Council ‘democracy day’ march. Evening Standard quotes police as being ‘worried about possible link-up’. Creche going well (8 kids). Our own legal back-up people begin to get busy. 30 people ‘die-in’ on roads at St Paul's. Cacophony of noise everywhere on the hour. Some of large crowd on steps of Mansion House resist mass arrests. Statues, especially military ones, ‘decorated’.

1 – 2 pm, Claimants group burn UB40 identity cards at Bank. 30 women visit Fleet Street, raid Boots the Chemist and throw tampons in the street to protest at their ‘luxury item’ VAT classification. Protest outside the Sun also. People again break free from police cordon at Bank, resist their violence and damage bank property – Norwich Union, Leeds Permanent and American International. Spikes to stop traffic thrown in road.

2- 3 pm, More rumpus on the hour! 20 cyclists again stop traffic. Mobile carnival stage, with live bands and people following almost reaches Bank from Tower Hill, but seized by police. Over 200 people held in police cells continue their protest and have fun by making noise and causing floods etc. Nat West Tower entered, files ripped up, fire alarms set off. Police bike knocked over. Groups of ‘nuns’ and Stockbrokers’ still leafleting. St Paul's - face painting, and also ‘God is Dead!' charge into cathedral. Musical and noisy processions round Royal Exchange. Orange smoke flare set off – thrown back by policewoman who hits another cop. 200 people go to Guildhall but driven back by police – court opened but no-one brought to appear so closes again (later we discover that Princess Alexandra was due to visit at 6pm)

3 - 4 pm, 200 people make human barricade across London Bridge. Traffic stop until police arrive. People begin to congregate at Bank again, spilling into streets all around. Lots of chanting, angry and good humoured at same time! Still many hemmed in. Still groups of singers and leafleters walking around.

4 - 5 pm, 1,500 at Bank. Surges into the street and back. London clearing bank window smashed as movement of crucial ‘City’ cheques is disrupted. Stockbrokers’ messages fouled up. Thousands of workers begin to go home, many watch with interest and amusement what is going on, as at lunchtime. 350 prisoners held in cells, and up to 200 in police vans. Incredibly, despite police violence people still good humoured, but gradually getting worn out.

5 - 6 pm, People hemmed in, but relax, and gradually everyone disperses. 3-400 go to block Whitehall and Ministry of Defence in Central London as protest against Cruise missile convoy movements during previous night and in solidarity with women of Greenham who had blocked its path on the motorway.

It's impossible to do justice to everyone’s activities. Throughout the day many people were also hanging around, taking photos or watching. For some, this was the first experience of a self-organised protest and so they were unsure of what to do, the need, to come prepared, take initiatives, talk to others, etc. Also many were angry yet intimidated by police violence. But also loads of people wanted to join in and kept asking ‘what's happening?', ‘where's the action?', and so on. Some came for just an hour or two to show support. Everyone made a contribution in their own way.

What were the achievements?

Well, it was certainly a day people in the City will remember. The machinery of oppression thrives on appearing invincible, unquestioned and eternal, and our protests have begun slowly to break this spell. All day workers looked from windows, stood in doorways and on balconies, or walked unhurriedly about. No-one seemed threatened, some were prejudiced yet many more seemed excited, thoughtful, amused or provoked to think and discuss with colleagues what was happening and why. Some were surprised and angry at police violence which partly aimed to keep workers and protesters apart.

I collected leaflets being distributed by 31 different groups, a dazzling range of opinions and ideas —complemented by graffiti. But there were still many working there who didn't understand or feel involved. Likewise, many of us benefited from trying to talk to and understand the people there, their attitudes to work, difficulty in challenging their roles and employers.

As for actually disrupting business — while we were there we certainly had some effect. We enticed people away from their jobs and towards the human community in their midst. Traffic, mostly on business, was often stopped or slowed up all day. The front doors of some buildings were closed, some were picketed and those around Bank disrupted for hours. And don't forget that some phone lines were blocked by those contributing from home or work to the phone blockade.

On two or three occasions, largish groups of people managed to directly damage property of financial institutions, both as a statement of anger and also to make them pay a little for a change. And perhaps the most significant disruption was of the movement of cheques at the end of the day when millions of pounds physically circulates around the area. According to the Times, ‘The banking community struggled to keep money flows moving, despite the unrest. They succeeded - but only just’. ‘Bank balances were £11million below target overnight’.

The aim of creating a festive, human atmosphere was partially successful, despite everything the police did. There was lots of music and noise, clowning, puppets and banners, painted faces, joking and openly expressing our energy and humanity. There was a great deal of solidarity, warmth and respect amongst ourselves despite being strangers and of many differing ideas and groups. This is so important and is a strength which will attract others to think about what we're saying and doing.

Likewise, the fact that there were no leaders or formal structures, just so many people with initiative, energy and determination to do their best. It is also encouraging to read the 17-page police briefing (which fell out of a back pocket on the day) now widely distributed, to see what their aims were for the 29th. They took the protest very seriously, cancelled all leave in the City force, and all coppers worked at least 12 hours continuously. With the miners strike and blockades, other large demonstrations and Greenham blocking of roads near London, they were at full stretch. London Transport police and even ‘special constabulary’ were brought in. Special powers (1839) for the City were enacted. They clearly understood the aims of the protest, and the range of events that had been planned and publicised. And they made all sorts of-preparations. However, despite their plans, 450 arrests and other violence, they failed.

We showed that we have the determination and the strength, initiative and imagination to make a telling protest, and that if people everywhere only realised their strength, the power of the state could be effectively challenged on a wide scale.

Involving more people

But if we are to learn from our struggles, we have also to look at and overcome our limitations. Most of the people who took part are active in anti-militarist, animal liberation or general libertarian groups, or a part of the large dissatisfied urban unemployed sub-culture...

Yet it was difficult to involve those who went on strike on the same day to defend public services and the GLC, and also striking miners. Likewise, the vast majority of people who feel strongly about some aspects of what's wrong with the world, still think that joining an organisation (like CND, War on Want, RSPCA or whatever) or voting for the Labour party is the thing to do. Many others would also like a better world but don't believe people can change things, or are afraid to express their feelings. lt is all these people who need to get together to begin to move against the system.

And there are yet millions more, billions world-wide, working class people who have to struggle where they live and work just to survive, to maintain self-respect. Many don't relate to political parties or endless protests, yet we need everyone to begin to really stop the systematic industrial destruction and exploitation of our world.

The Stop the City demonstration is one small yet significant step in a developing process of awakening and of real opposition. We are learning as we take part. Many more people have become involved, not only in large scale protests but also in everyday activities, overcoming isolation and gaining confidence. Changing society is not only about collective opposition, it is also about people creating and extending mutual aid, solidarity and libertarian relationships amongst each other — neighbours, work-mates and wherever people meet. If the Stop the City idea contributes to that and to the creation of diverse local initiatives and resistance, it will be worthwhile.

What now?

On the 14th and 15th of April there was a follow-up weekend. On Saturday 60-70 people, many having been arrested, came to discuss court procedures, solidarity, films, look at photos, etc. Anyone who wishes to support those arrested can come to Guildhall Magistrates Court on Friday 11th and 25th May, 10:00am, or send donations to the Bust Fund Network, c/o Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road,London N1. Any other legal enquiries, phone Amanda 01-833 1633. An exciting unedited film was shown and is being turned into a film/video to be made available. Contact Mick 01-278 0075 if you have any additional material.

The second day was a general discussion about stopping the Cityy, what happened and the future. There was a very constructive and respectful atmosphere, and a general feeling that we had achieved a lot and there was so much more that was possible - not just in the City but everywhere. There will be a week of of protest against financial institutions, and the wars, exploitation and destruction they cause and profit from on September 22nd- 29th, with a general call to Stop the City, Thursday September 27th again. Everyone in the world is invited!

Likewise it was decided to Stop the City on Thursday May 31st also, while the enthusiasm and memories of March are alive. A totally self-organised protest – there won’t be any co-ordination meetings for May 31st, so everyone is encouraged to spread the word, come prepared and do what they think best.

TOGETHER WE CAN CHANGE OUR WORLD'.

See also Richard Metzgers' memories and photographs of this day at Dangerous Minds.

Other related History is Made at Night posts:

Stop the City in London, September 1984

Stop the City Birmingham, October 1984

- Occupy London: First Thoughts

-Occupy London Second Thoughts

- G20 protest, 2009

- J18 Carnival Against Capital, 1999

[post originally written in 2011 as the Occupy Stock Exchange London protest camped out by St Paul's in the same area targeted by Stop the City. Updated September 2023 with flyers and press cuttings]

Report from The Standard, 29 March 1983

'policewoman throws back smoke bomb as demo brings violence to the city'

'London grinds to a halt as thousands march'

(on the same day as Stop the City thousands took part in a march against plans to abolish the Greater London Council)

A Lambeth Stop the City planning meeting at 121 Railton Road in March 1984

UK nightclub chain goes bust

The financial crisis looks to have killed off the UK's largest chain of nightclubs, threatening up to 3000 jobs. According to the Finacial Times (27 October 2011):

'Clubbers put away your dancing shoes: Luminar , the only London-listed nightclub company, is to go into administration after failing to secure an extension to its banking covenants.In a statement, the owner of clubs such as Love Social and Fuzzy Logic said it would immediately suspend business and place the company in administration because it was unable to meet repayment obligations on its debt, which fall due on October 27.

Luminar has approximately £85m in net debt owed to Lloyds TSB, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland. The company is the largest UK nightclub owner by number of venues, with 75 clubs across the UK employing 3,000 full and part-time staff. However the company had experienced several years of declines in like-for-like revenues.

The company was hit hard by the smoking ban and government licensing re-arrangements which meant pubs could extend their drinking hours beyond 11pm. Following the changes, Luminar cut the number of clubs it owned from 230 at the end of 2006 to 100 clubs two years later. More recently Luminar’s core 18-24-year-old customer base has been badly hit by the economic downturn and subsequent youth unemployment' (read full article here).

Venues owned by Luminar include the numerous Lava & Ignite, Life, Oceana, Bar Rock, Jumpin Jaks and Liquid clubs found in town centres across the country (full list here). It started out in 1988 with one club, Manhattan Nitespot in King's Lynn, and grew rapidly, being floated on the stock exchange in 1996.

Chile Thriller Protest

Personally I am a little jaded by Michael Jackson flashmobs, but this example from Chile in June 2011 takes it to another level of political protest with around 3000 students, many dressed up as zombies, dancing to Thriller by the Presidential palace in Santiago.

The dance off was part of the ongoing student movement about the funding of education, with zombies wearing signs saying 'died in debt'.

Occupy London Second Thoughts

Since last Saturday's start of Occupy London Stock Exchange (Occupy LSX), I've been back a couple of times to the camp. The tent town by St Paul's Cathedral is now settled in complete with food, information and legal tents, portaloos and a library. There's a Uni tent with lectures and discussions, I gather my old comrade Massimo de Angelis spoke on Wednesday.


The best thing about it is probably its messthetics. Don't get me wrong, it seems very tidy, but its very existence messes up the sterile homogeneity of this part of London. You rarely see much in the way of street life other than tourists and people rushing to and from work, so it was interesting yesterday seeing all the little encounters and conversations and encoun going on around the camp with protesters and passers-by. Good too to see the walls plastered with all kinds of posters and messages.


I've included quite a few images of the posters because they give a flavour of some of the different positions of people in the occupation (click on images to enlarge to read some of the posters in more detail) - anarchist, marxist, liberal, new agey etc.









In a way, the fact that people are sleeping in the streets here represents a reclaiming of the City as a living space. The financial area of London is now largely empty of residents - it is a place to work, not to live. But until the nineteenth century it was the heart of London, filled with people of all kinds living in close proximity. The population of the City reduced from around 130,000 in 1800 to only 10,000 today, while the rest of London has expanded and become home to millions.
The camp is actually on Church land, and today the Church authorities issued a statement saying that they were having to close the cathedral for health and safety reasons because of the protest. It seems inevitable that this will be used as a pretext to seek the eviction of the camp, and the 'health and safety' has to be taken with a pinch of salt. The tents are not blocking the entrances to the church and people have been freely entering the Cathedral all week. Indeed even this afternoon, after the Church had issued its statement about closure, a service was held there for school children - so presumably it was safe enough for them.

The outcome probably reflects political tensions within the Church - on the one hand there is some support from radical Christians for the protest (and some are active within it). On the other hand, St Paul's is at the establishment end of the Church spectrum, with its 'corporate partners' including JP Morgan, Lloyds Bank and the London Stock Exchange.


The assembly today (pictured above) vowed to continue the occupation. In a sense what is being played out repeats the medieval history of this part of London. From the 12th to the 14th century St Paul's enclosed surrounding streets with a wall and annexed them for the Church, and the citizens demanded the right to continue to assemble on the land.

According to the historian John Stowe: 'King Edward II. in the 10th of his Reign [1294], granted that the said Churchyard should be inclosed with a Wall, where it wanted, for the Murthers and Robberies that were there committed. But the Citizens then claimed the East Part of the Churchyard, to be the Place of Assembly to their Folk-motes; and that the great Steeple, there situate, was to that Use, their common Bell; which being there rung, all the Inhabitants of the City might hear, an come together. They also claimed the West Side, that they might there assemble themselves together, with the Lord of Baynards Castle, for view of their Armour, in defence of the City' (A Survey of London, 1603).

Glad to say that this week there was no sign of some of the dubious anti-semitic currents I detected at the weekend (see Occupy London: first thoughts), indeed there was singing and dancing there this week for the Jewish Simchat Torah celebrations.

Mona's San Francisco: 1940s lesbian club

'After 1920 women who occasionally wore men's clothing and those who passed as men began to socialize more openly in cafes and night clubs. In Chicago two night clubs, the Roselle Club, run by Eleanor Shelly, and the Twelve-thirty Club, run by Becky Blumfield, were closed by the police during the 1930s because "women in male attire were nightly patrons of the places". Many of the couples who frequented these clubs had been married to each other by a black minister on Chicago's South Side. In San Francisco, lesbians met at Mona's, where, it was said "Girls will be Boys"'.

Source: San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project 'She Even Chewed Tobacco: A pictorial narrative of passing women in America' in 'Hidden from history: reclaiming the gay and lesbian past' by Martin B. Duberman, Martha Vicinus, George Chauncey (Meridian Books, 1989).

This advert for Mona's Club 440 (440 Broadway, San Francisco) comes from San Francisco Life 1942:



This advert mentions Gladys Bentley, described as "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs" and "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Artist."

In his A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem, Eric Garber mentions Bentley's appearances in New York in the 1920s/30s:

'Perhaps the most famous gay-oriented club of the era was Harry Hansberry's Clam House, a narrow, smoky speakeasy on 133rd Street. The Clam House featured Gladys Bentley, a 250- pound, masculine, darkskinned lesbian, who performed all night long in a white tuxedo and top hat. Bentley, a talented pianist with a magnificent, growling voice, was celebrated for inventing obscene Iyrics to popular contemporary melodies. Langston Hughes called her "an amazing exhibition of musical energy." Eslanda Robeson, wife of actor Paul Robeson, gushed to a friend, "Gladys Bentley is grand. I've heard her three nights, and will never be the same!" Schoolteacher Harold Jackman wrote to his friend Countee Cullen, "When Gladys sings 'St. James Infirmary,' it makes you weep your heart out."

In the 1950s she appeared on Groucho Marx's TV show:

Occupy London: first thoughts

The various Occupy actions around the world at the weekend have varied in scale, intensity and political mood. Rioting and huge crowds in Rome, a big demonstration in Madrid, and an extension of the Occupy Wall Street movement into the heart of New York, with a demonstration in Times Square.

Anti-austerity protests based on the occupation of public spaces in the heart of the city have been building for months (Puerta del Sol square in Madrid, Syntagma square in Athens, not to menton Tahrir Square in Cairo and Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv). This weekend can be seen as a conscious internationalisation and that counts for something when a major trend in relation to the crisis of the global economy is a resurgence of populist nationalism.

The London action was smaller than New York, Spain or Italy, but respectable in terms of numbers - I would say there were a couple of thousand but difficult to be sure, as the crowd was split up by the police cordon. Unsuprizingly, police lines prevented entrance to Paternoster Square, home of the London Stock Exchange, but the crowd did manage to occupy the steps of St Pauls Cathedral. There were some surreal scenes such as people dressed up for weddings in the church making their way through the crowd, and tourists variously frustrated and entertained. I heard one American woman complaining about the protests say that she had come here to help our economy but she wouldn't be coming back!



Compared to previous actions in the City, Occupy the London Stock Exchange felt a bit lacking in energy/intensity. But then again while Stop the City in the 80s and J18 in the 90s aimed to cause havoc for a day and then disperse, the Occupy movement is in for a longer haul, with many people staying there all weekend (and we shall see how much longer). So maybe some conservation of energy was in order.

There was a mix of people there, good, bad and ugly according to your taste. It would be very easy to listen to a few of the latter and dismiss the whole movement out of hand, as for instance Ian Bone does ('One Thousand Cultists Kettled at St Pauls'). But I would say that it is currently too diverse, fluid and open to give up on - there's plenty of room for discussion and development.



And there's certainly plenty to argue about... The adulation of some for Julian Assange, who turned up on Saturday, certainly made me feel uncomfortable, as the guy seems to have a bit of a messiah-complex combined with some incoherent politics (leaving aside the rape accusation - he hasn't been tried yet after all).

A movement without visible leaders is not one that has necessarily solved the problem of leadership, i.e. how to create direction and momentum without giving rise to a self-serving elite (whether elected or self-appointed). Without consciously tackling this issue, the lack of leaders can just mean that the 'leader's chair' still exists even if it remains empty, just waiting to be filled by the first plausible demagogue/celebrity that comes along .

Likewise a movement that disdains politics is not a movement without political assumptions. There is a fundamental shared feeling of 'enough is enough', of the refusal of austerity, and the search for an alternative to a life subject to the fluctuations of the economy. That's all good, but then what?



There are some odd alternative economy models around in the occupations, notions of capitalism without finance capital (the 'real economy'), of monetary reform, of a resource-based economy that is beyond capitalism and communism (this is the line of the new-agey Zeitgeist Movement who had a banner on steps of St Pauls). It is not just that some of these ideas seem to have very little understanding of what capitalism actually is and misrepresent it as a conspiracy by a few rich bankers rather than a global mode of production and exchange. It's far worse than that, because some of these ideas have very murky antecedents and indeed dubious present-day associations.

A lot of 'monetary reform' notions just read like recycled 'Social Credit' ideas, as developed before the Second World War by CH Douglas. As Derek Wall pointed out in his article Social Credit: The Ecosocialism of Fools (Capitalism Nature Socialism, September 2003), Douglas was not only an extreme right wing racist, but his monetery ideas are saturated with an anti-semitic world view. Likewise, the Zeitgeist Movement basically rehash the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion, simply subsituting the word 'bankers' for 'jews' (see Zeitgeist Exposed at the Third Estate).

At the Bristol occupation at the weekend this racist conspiracy theory view of capitalism was openly articulated by someobody telling the occupation that 'Zionists want a new world order'. What was disgraceful about this episode was that people dutifully repeated this poison and cheered him rather than kicking the guy out. And that whoever was responsible for 'Occupy Bristol update' on youtube thought this was uncontroversial enough to give the guy a platform.

The 'human microphone' thing in the occupations is in danger of becoming an absurd fetish. In Wall Street people repeated the phrases of speakers to make sure that people further back could hear speeches when a microphone was banned. In most cases where there is no ban it would be surely be better - and very simple - just to set up a PA or use a megaphone, like people have been for years. By the looks of the Bristol occupation, there was no need for anything as the crowd seemed small enough for everybody to hear. It did look like a religious 'call and response' exercise, and involved people in the bad faith exericse of speaking nonsense which on reflection I would hope many would prefer not to utter.

I know that there are plenty of good sound people camping out at St Pauls now, and I think it is very important to get involved and challenge reactionary ideas. To just walk away holding our noses could allow some of these dangerous ideas to get a foothold in the very high profile occupation movement.

Oh yes and this poster on Saturday really got on my tits: 'Go to work, follow fashion, watch TV, spend money, look happy, act normal, repeat after me. I am free'. Patronising activist superiority complex nonsense, looking down on the 'duped' proles. People who work, follow fashion and watch TV (I am guilty on all three counts, your honour) know when we get out of bed every morning that we are not really free, and we know when we have to spend money we haven't got what the economy is all about in a visceral way. And until we move, the 'movement' against capitalism is going nowhere.



See also: Occupy London Second Thoughts

An 18th century drag ball in London

Richard Norton's Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook includes lots of fascinating material, not least in relation to 'Molly Houses' and other places where gay men socialized in that period. The following account from 1718 alludes to a Ball in Holborn, in the vicinity of which a number of men were arrested and imprisoned.

The context is interesting as the arrests were ordered by Charles Hitchin, Under City Marshal and a member of the Society for the Reformation of Manners, which campaigned against 'immorality'. Hitchin though was accused of being no stranger to 'He-Whores' himself, as claimed here in the words Jonathan Wild, the famous thief-catcher/crook whose capture Hitchin had secured:

'As he was going out of the House he said, he supposed they would have the Impudence to make a Ball. The Man desiring him to explain what he meant by that, he answer'd, that there was a noted House in Holborn, to which such sort of Persons used to repair, and dress themselves up in Woman's Apparel; and dance and romp about, and make such a hellish Noise, that a Man would swear they were a Parcel of Cats a Catter-wauling. — But, says he, I'll be reveng'd of these smock-fac'd young Dogs. I'll Watch their Waters, and secure 'em, and send 'em to the Compter.

Accordingly the Marshal knowing their usual Hours, and customary Walks, placed himself with a Constable in Fleet-street, and dispatch'd his Man, with another to assist him, to the Old-Bailey. At the expected Time several of the sporting Youngsters were seized in Women's Apparel, and convey'd to the Compter. Next Morning they were carried before the Lord-Mayor in the same Dress they were taken in. Some were compleatly rigg'd in Gowns, Petticoats, Head-cloths, fine lac'd Shoes, furbelow'd Scarves and Marks; some had Riding-hoods; some were dressed like Milk-Maids, others like Shepheardesses with green Hats, Waistcoats and Petticoats; and others had their Faces patch'd and painted, and wore very extensive Hoop-petticoats, which had been very lately introduced. His Lordship having examin'd them, committed them to the Work-house, there to continue at hard labour during Pleasure. And, as Part of their Punishment, order'd them to be publickly conducted thro' the Streets in their Female Habits. Pursuant to which order the young Tribe was carried in Pomp to the Work-house, and remain'd there a considerable Time, till at last, one of them threaten'd the Marshal with the same Punishment for former Adventures, and he thereupon apply'd to my Lord-Mayor, and procured their Discharge. This Commitment was so mortifying to one of the young Gentlemen, that he died in a few Days after his Release. — Any that want to be acquainted with the Sodomitish Academy, may be inform'd where it is, and be graciously introduced by the accomplish'd Mr. Hitchin'.

SOURCE: Richard Norton (ed.), Jonathan Wild Exposes Charles Hitchin, 1718, based on 'Select Trials at the Sessions-House in the Old-Bailey, From the Year 1720, to this Time', 1742.

1980 mods: reaction or rebellion?

(click on images to enlarge)

In January 1980, London-based radical magazine The Leveller tried to come to terms with the mod revival that had emerged in the previous year. After the explicit social critique of the post-punk period, some saw it as a retrogade if not outright reactionary movement, as Ian Walker argues in his article here:

'The union jack, in 1979, is a fascist symbol. The red white and blue chic is the perfect accessory to the white power sticker the young lads wear on their parkas down at the Bridgehouse in the East End on a Friday night. Mod is white historical romance. It is the disco before the pollution of minorities. It is the high street before the smell of Asian food. It is instead the smell of pease pudding and the public baths where the whites come out whiter (this is the scenery of Quadrophenia). It is the land of hope and glory before the advent of feminist social workers, gay pop stars and black footballers. It is the glorious proletarian past to be recreated in the fascist vision of tomorrow. How did we trip from ripped'n torn to neat'n tidy, from punk to mod? From avant garde to retrograde, subversion to incorporation?...

We want mods to be dissidents in knife-edge creases, dredge up some anti-Thatcher quote for that cover, but really we know they are more interested in pulling power than workers' power. We want to make important-sounding statements about the corruption of street culture into consumerism, just to show we've still got all our ideological marbles (What the fuck can we do?). We dream about the council estates shaking to the rhythms of Madness and then we read the news stories about blood and glass and hospitals, the Boreham Wood mods have beaten up the Stevenage mods. We want to think the kids are alright, even if they might just now be saying they're fascists. We want to be loved by those kids, not derided as wimps and social workers (but of course we know fascism has always stressed manhood and valour). I want never gets...

The youth culture is the safety valve. Let's have surfers fighting heroin addicts in the downtown benefit disco for the astronaut asbestos mob who were ripped up by the flower power razor gangs. Let's have a permanent war of the working classes. The Glasgow experiment worked: ship the bastards out to housing projects on the dark side of town and let them kill each other, protect the law abiders with barbed wire and machine-gun emplacements. Three cheers for the classless society. Hip, hip. Grandad was a ted, Dad was a Punk, grandson is a space cowboy. But what the fuck?'.

David Widgery is more ambivalent, finding the scene wanting in comparison to its predecessors: 'Ian Page [of mod revivalist band Secret Affair] is a fair trumpeter but intellectually he makes John Lydon look like Walter Benjamin'. But still 'every genuine new culture is part of a guerilla war in the entertainment industry. New Mods have elevated the originals to stylistic deities and taken the sheer elan of the Mod explosion in the era of affluence as a disguise for the new depression'.

Red Saunders reflects mainly on his experience as a first wave mod in the 1960s, critical of its later representation in the 1979 film Quadrophenia:

'I was so disappointed with the racism in 'Quadrophenia' because it just wasn't like that. All that stuff about the blacks off the banana boat. It was the other way round on the original Mod scene. Like I first got onto Blue Beat through a black bloke who was a despatch rider in our office. I was cool because of him. If a black GI would say 'Hey man, alright' in the club you'd fall over yourself as you sweated it out in your Madras jacket. 'Cos the Flamingo was 110 degrees. But you could never take your jacket off. Never.

See we were all new. Just out of school. And your head was full with a straight middle of the road type racist, imperialist type education. More or less Brittania Rules the Waves. And suddenly it wasn't on. You suddenly thought twice. And black music was the first thing that had hit you. And you weren't supposed to friendly with Blacks. So you were. Because anything you weren't supposed to do, yuu did. Rather than that you were seriously friendly, you did it first of all because it was Cool. But then out of that came a very solid anti-racist feeling. That's why I'm anti-racist. It stems from the early Mod days.

But our political consciousness was very weird. I was a West End Mod because I lived in Paddington. I remember going home after the all-nighters through Marble Arch pissing In the litter boxes and drinking up their milk bottles. And if any figure of authority like a Park Attendant came up had a go, you'd say 'They're still dying in Vietnam man. Its alright.' In the days when no one used to hardly know about the war in Vietnam. I don't know what it meant. It was just something we started to say. And we used to say things like 'Gas house Baby'. It was the Youth Rebellion I suppose. You weren't supposed to be popping pills, so you did that too.

But we thought CND [Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament] were just dirty beatniks. You'd have a good time down Trafalgar Square at the end of the Aldermaston March to 'check out the birds'. But you wouldn't go on the March. Not unless you were very conscious. But we used to wear the Ban the Bomb badge. Very cool. On my Beatle jacket. But you were much more interested in clothes. I used to be a real dresser. I queued for 4 hours outside Anello and Davide in Drury Lane to get my red Cuban heeled boots. Superb. We never had wheels. The scooter people were more suburbs. Every now and again we'd go down this Mod Mecca called The Orchid Ballroom Purley. There'd be a million scooters outside. We'd think 'What a Bunch of Peasants'. 'Quadrophenia' was a bit over the top on the suits as well'.



Then there’s interviews with Mods themselves. Mark, a 20 year old from Yorkshire, explains the tension between the scooterist Northern Soul fans and the fans of the new mod bands: 'When it started up here it was totally to do with scooters. In ‘76 you could near enough say every scooter kids in the North was a Northern Soul fanatic. It was an underground scene, unheard of in the South. To be a Northern Soul fan was to be something different. We organised a run to Brighton to try and bring North and South together and to try and get Mods without scooters there and Mods with scooters. It turned out a bit of rivalry sprang up. They thought we wore stupid clothes and no good because we didn’t follow the new mod bands. Sixties soul is what I listen to and funk, Wilson Picket, Otis Redding, a lot of Tamla Motown'. Vic from Huddersfield concurs: 'Down there they spring up and say they are Mods but I don’t think they are. I think they are just punk bands with suits on'.

Sally Player (19) from Edmonton discusses racism at gigs: 'The NF types are a load of hypocrites. Listening to ska and Blue beat and then turning round and say they hate blacks. I can’t understand them. The BM [British Movement] and NF [National Front] come to concerts where people are performing songs that were originally made by black performers and do Seig Heil and Movement Movement. I just can’t see why they’ve paid money at the door just to do that…'

What's being played out in these articles is an age-old tension between the strategies of 'counter culture' and 'street culture'. The former, generally but not exclusively more middle class, emphasises 'alternative' values, dropping out, critiquing 'materialism' and 'fashion' (even though there is usually just as much of a dress code as any other scene). The latter, a more proletarian dandyism, emphasises dressing up, style and working class assertiveness but is often less overtly 'political'. Still, against those who would set sub-cultures in aspic, the boundaries between these currents are always shifting. After all many of the first generation 'mods' went on to be 'hippies' and within a few months of leftists agonising about whether ex-skins turned mods in the late 1970s were the harbingers of fascism, similar people were writing excitedly about the latest mutation of that scene: 2 Tone, with its explict anti-racist sensibility.

(I don't agree with Ian Walker's stance here, but he did write some other interesting articles in that period about 'The Other Britain', some of which have been reproduced by Inveresk Street Ingrate).

See also: Mods, Rockers and Revolution.

Police and parties, 1994-95

A while ago I posted chronologies of police and parties from 1996 and 1997. Here's some more from 1994 and 1995, all from England unless otherwise stated.

1994

January

( N.Ireland): A member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary is acquitted of the murder of 19 year-old Kevin McGovern in 1991, and will now return to police duty. McGovern was shot in the back on his way to a disco in Cookstown. The policeman claimed he thought the youth was armed (he wasn't). A few weeks earlier (on December 23) two British soldiers were found not guilty of the murder of Fergal Carraher, an unarmed man who was shot dead at an army checkpoint in Cullhana in 1990.

March

(N.Ireland): 16 people are arrested and many injured as RUC police with riot gear and dogs attack young people leaving a dance in Omagh. As the dance finished, police sealed off surrounding streets. People are beaten about the head with three foot long batons and plastic bullets fired.

April

Richard O’Brien, a 37 year old father of seven is killed by police from Walworth police station in south London. He had been to a dance at an Irish centre after a christening; outside he got into an argument with cops who held him down on the ground for 5 minutes after handcuffing him. In 1995 an inquest jury found that he had been unlawfully killed.

November

100 police raid Riverside club in Newcastle, making 33 arrests

December

Police raid on Final Frontier, techno night at Club UK, Wandsworth, South London

1995

May

Police with riot shields raid a techno free party at the ArtLab, Preston and impound the sound system, decks, records and other equipment. 21 arrests [Mixmag July 1995]

(Scotland): Drug squad cops harrass people at Ingnition II, a commercial rave in Aberdeen. 75 people were searched (some of them up to four times in a half hour period), and some arrested.

3000 people attend an all-weekend free party organised by United Systems at a disused air force base near Woodbridge, Suffolk featuring Virus, Vox Populi, Jiba, Oops and Chiba City sound systems. Police shut down the party on Monday afternoon, arresting four people and confiscating equipment (all returned within two weeks).

Police close down free party put on by Transient and Babel sound systems near Bangor (Wales).

Heavy police presence at Phenomenon One at the Hacienda, Manchester. Although there was no trouble, the police complained that there were too many people smoking grass and drinking after 2 am, and the management cancelled future jungle nights.

June

Police raid Home in Manchester, and call for it to be closed down permanently. It doesn’t reopen until December.

July

The weekend of July 7th 1995 saw the first major police operation using the ‘anti-rave’ sections of the Criminal Justice Act. Cops across the country coordinated their efforts and successfully managed to prevent the planned 7/7 “mother” of all free festivals. To stop people dancing in a field, police:

- raided the houses of people believed to be involved in organising the party and charged eight people with “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”;
- took over the party info phonelines and questioned callers;
- used helicopters and set up roadblocks to stop people getting to planned festival sites at Corby (Northants), Sleaford (Lincs.), and Smeatharpe (Devon) where ten people were arrested.
- seized the sound system belonging to Black Moon (a free party collective based at Buxton, Derbyshire), charging three people under Section 63 of the CJA, the first time it has been used.
- used Section 60 of the CJA to set up five mile exclusion zones around festival sites.

Thousands of people took to the roads in search of the festival, and despite the efforts of the police several smaller parties did happen, including at Grafham (where over 1000 people partied) and at Steart Beach near Hinckley Point in Dorset where 150 vehicles managed to gather.

Bottles and bricks thrown at police by people being turned away from a warehouse near Huddersfield, Yorkshire where a party was to be held. 3 people are arrested after shop and police car windows are smashed.

70 police raid Progress house night in Derby. Everybody in the club (punters, staff and security) searched and made to leave, and the club was closed down

On July 23rd 1995 Reclaim the Streets closed down one of London’s busiest roads and held a big free party. Publicity for ‘Rave against the machine’ had been circulating for weeks with only the venue a secret. While police wondered where the action would be hundreds of people poured out of Angel tube station and blocked Islington high street, transforming it quickly into a car free zone. Banners calling for an end to the “tyranny of the motor car” and “support the railworkers” (on strike) were hung across the road, and sound systems, including one fitted onto an armoured car, sprang into action. Chill out spaces were created with bits of carpet on the road and a few comfy armchairs, as well as a giant sandpit for children. A couple of thousand people partied from noon to about seven o’clock while the police watched on unamused. After the music finished and most people had gone home, riot cops took out their frustration on those left behind, baton charging them down to Kings Cross, and making 38 arrests

(Scotland): “The friendly ‘boys on blue’ or rather ‘psycho cops in combat gear’ launched a massive, over-the-top drugs raid on the Kathouse club in Lockerbie. About 50 of them burst in, handcuffed everyone and carted them off to Lockerbie and Dumfries police station. Everyone was interrogated, finger prints were taken and they had to mark on a plan of the Kathouse where they had been sitting and they were all strip searched. The police treated everyone like shit. The Kathouse holds about 150 people max. It’s in a small town and the club itself is not very big. .. The music ranged from house to hardcore, the atmosphere was electric, there was never any violence... 6 people out of 77 were charged with possession of drugs” [M8, October 1995.]

August

(Canada): In Shuswap territory, a sacred sundance and burial site was been occupied by Native Americans. At the end of August 1995, heavily armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police cut off all communications to the Shuswap camp, and surround the area. One Canadian cop refered to the sundancers as “dancing prairie niggers”. [Earth First Action Update, September 1995]

(Argentina): Police arrest 130 gay men and transvestites after storming the gay pub Gas Oil in Buenos Aires on suspicion of ‘corruption’. In Mar del Plata, 60 lesbians and gay men were stripped searched and arrested in the Petroleo disco [Pink Paper, 1 September 1995]

September

(Iran): “A bride has been sentenced to 85 lashes in Mashhad, Iran, for dancing with men at her wedding. The court sentenced 127 wedding guests to floggings or fines and jailed one man.” [Guardian, 5 September 1995]

(Ireland): Tribal Gathering II, due to take place in Cavan on September 30th, is cancelled after the local police object. A local cop says that they did not have the resources to stop “the undesirable elements that shows of this nature attract”. Cavan County Council had initially approved the event, but after the intervention of the Garda they moved the goalposts and said that the organisers (Universe and The Mean Fiddler) would need planning permission, impossible in the time remaining.

Over 114 arrests (mainly for drugs) at Dreamscape, a commercial rave at Brafield Aeordorome, Northampton.

35 people arrested in police raid on party at Clyro near Hay-on-Wye on the Welsh border.

October

150 police raid Club UK in south London. Operation Blade involved dogs, horses, and the Territorial Support Group. 800 clubbers were turned out on to the streets, and many searched. 10 people were arrested

(Wales): Police raid 37 pubs and clubs in mid-Wales, making 50 arrests after seizing various drugs

11 people are nicked in a a drugs raid on Happy Jax in south-east London.

On Saturday October 21st 1995, 600 people block Deansgate, one of Manchester’s busiest shopping streets for a Reclaim the Streets protest. People dance and party until 5:00 pm, when the police threaten to arrest the Desert Storm Sound System (veterans of Hyde Park and Bosnia). The crowd move to Albert Square (outside the Town Hall) where they carry on till the morning.

November

(Scotland): 30 police raid Slam at the Arches in Glasgow.

150 police wait outside Dance Paradise event in Great Yarmouth searching people and making 86 arrests ; the rave was spread over three venues and the police stopped and searched people as they moved between them. The police invited BBC and ITV crews to film the operation [Mixmag, January 1996]

Manager of the Mineshaft gay club in Manchester convicted under the Disorderly Houses Act 1751 for supposedly allowing men to have sex with men in a back-room at the club (raided by police in April 1994 with 13 arrests).

The owner of Peckham gay bar Attitude fined under an 1832 Act for “allowing disorderly behaviour”. Undercover cops in leather visited the club earlier this year, as did two Southwark Council Licensing officers. The latter attended an underwear party and stripped down in the spirit of things before reporting that they had seen men having oral sex and four men dancing, when the bar had no dancing licence [Gay Gazette 8 November 1995]

The House of Lords refuses to repeal the Sunday Observance Act of 1780 which forbids pubs and clubs from charging for dances on the Sabbath. While horse racing and shopping have been allowed, the Lords ruled Sunday dances too sensitive and needing more public consultation. The Metropolitan Police have written to pubs warning them that they could be fined for breaking these rules. Since New Years Eve falls on a Sunday some events (such as a Sign of the Times party at the ICA) have already been cancelled. The law also requires special licences to extend music, dancing and drinking hours on a Sunday [Time Out, November 1995, Gay Gazette, 8 Nov. 1995]

December

Police raid the Dolphin gay pub in Wakefield at 2:30 am on Boxing Day and arrest 15 people because “Licensing laws were being broken”

Seven people become the first to be found guilty under the “rave” sections of the Criminal Justice Act, after being arrested at a party on the site of an anti-roads protest in Whitstable, Kent

(Australia) 20,000 people from all over the world turn up for the Bondi beach party in Sydney on Christmas Day. Police threaten to ban next year’s party, or at least make it alcohol-free after rioting at the end. On New Year’s Eve, there is more trouble: 12 people were arrested and rocks and bottles were thrown at cops.

1987: dancing in Brixton and beyond

The Acid House moment of the late 1980s, like the Punk moment a decade or so previously, is often presented as a kind of Year Zero where something entirely new exploded against a backdrop of boredom and mediocrity. To sustain this narrative it is necessary to pretend that nothing much was going on beforehand. Simon Reynolds' (generally excellent) Energy Flash is a case in point: 'In 1987, London clubland was as crippled by cool as ever. The Soho craze for rare groove (early seventies, sub-James Brown funk) represented the fag-end of eighties style culture, what with its elitist obscurantism... and its deference to a bygone, outdated notion of 'blackness''.

For me personally, the house and techno scenes of the early 1990s were a period of unprecedented intensity. But was the time before it really so dull? Not for me. January 1987 was the time I first moved down to live in London, initially squatting on Brixton's Tulse Hill Estate while working in Lambeth Council libraries by day. I remember that year as being a time of great musical innovation, as well as appreciation for some fine older music.

It was a time of amazing electronic beats - 1986 saw the release of Janet Jackson's 'Control' (produced by Jam and Lewis), 'Who is It?' by Mantronix and Joyce Sims' 'All n All'. A time when the possibilities of sampling were first being explored - 'Pump up the Volume' by MARRS and Coldcut's 'Say Kids What Time is It?' both came out in early '87, as did KLF's notorious '1987 - what the f*ck is going on?'. It was the golden age of Def Jam, with 'License to Ill' by the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy's debut 'Yo! Bum Rush the Show' both coming out that year too. I remember lying on the beach in Majorca that summer listening to it - if that was 'outdated blackness' it sounded good to me (though the big track that summer in Majorca was 'I Found Lovin'' by the Fatback Band, must have danced to that every night). And yes, a time of house music breaking through - Steve 'Silk' Hurley's Jack Your Body went to number one in Britain in January '87.

(Public Enemy actually played at the Brixton Academy in 1987 with Eric B & Rakim, as did on another night Run DMC and The Beastie Boys. I didn't go to these gigs though did see Public Enemy there a couple of years later)

In clubs you would hear an eclectic mix of all this with earlier soul and funk sounds. The latter was partly being rediscovered as a result of checking out the source of hip hop samples. For instance I remember dancing to Jean Knight's Mr Big Stuff at Wendy May's Locomotion at the Town and Country club in Kentish town, a Friday night feast of Stax, Motown and Northern Soul. Like many people, I'd first heard the chorus as a sample in 1987's Mr Big Stuff by Heavy D and the Boyz.

A Wendy May chart of tracks from the Locomotion - not sure of source of this, evidently a 1980s music paper!

'Free bus to Trafalgar Square from 1:00 am'

One of the first clubs I went to in London '87 was a night called Wear it Out, in a room above a pub in Brixton - the Loughborough Hotel. Music was a mixture of classic soul/funk and new beats. I know it was there that I first heard Prince's Sign o' the Times, which also came out that year. The same venue became a big part of Brixton nightlife in the late 1980s/early 1990s, going on to become a gay club where they played lots of Stock Aitken & Waterman dance pop and then from 1989 to 1997 the home of the Mambo Inn, legendary Latin & African music club.

Wear it Out flyer posted on Twitter by Ian Marsden, who recalled: 'We lived above the taxi office opposite and got a  mainly local crowd from leafletting  in Brixton and Camberwell. Prince was a staple. Collaborators/DJs were @deborahmarsden1, @WyattBedford, Susie Bonfield, Gin Murphy and @LucyOBrienTweet' (Lucy O'Brien, sometime NME journalist and author of books on women's music, recalls that she played Sign O' The Times DJing there. Apparently fellow NME writer Stuart Cosgrove also DJ'd there).

Danse Chase (or Dance Chase) upstairs at the Alexandra at Clapham Common had a similar musical mix of old and new. I remember hearing tracks there from Michael Jackson's Bad LP, another 1987 classic, on the day it came out. The image on the membership card, with its Keith-Haring-meets-the-Aztecs figures, was repeated on banners around the walls. I believe they were designed by promoter Kev Moore.

Danse Chase diversified into Northern Soul with what became the Southside Soul Club (some good memories of that place at Soul Source - photos of Dance Chase also sourced from there). They also had a jazz night (Hi Note), which was where I once saw Slim Gaillard.

This short film of dancer Keb Darge was shot at the Alexandra in that period:

Another Northern Soul night was Agent 00-Soul at the George IV in Brixton Hill. I remember there being some serious dancers there, including a guy in a wheelchair who put my wannabe Wigan Casino moves to shame.

Also went out sometimes to the 121 club in Brixton, the squatted anarchist centre at 121 Railton Road (later home to Dead by Dawn). Some friends of mine from the South West London Direct Action Movement put on a party there that year, I recall flyering the Prince Albert pub and then dancing to disco in the basement at 121.

One of the biggest nights was Dance Exchange at The Fridge on Saturdays in Brixton, a big dancefloor with banks of TVs around it. 1970s 'Rare Groove' was a big part of the sound there, with great tracks including Maceo & The Macks 'Cross the Tracks', Bobby Byrd's 'I know you got soul' and The Jackson Sisters 'I believe in Miracles'. But plenty of contemporary sounds too. And yes I wore the uniform of black denim (bought from Allders in Croydon) and Doc Marten shoes, with flat top from Andy's/Haircut Sir? at bottom of Tulse Hill.

Fridge programme, March 1986 (from Phatmedia)

It was a similar mix of the old and new at the PSV club in Manchester where I went a couple of times in that period (the club in Hulme, also known as the Russell Club and the Caribbean Club had previously been the location for the first Factory club). This flyer from 1987 gives a sense of the variety of music to be heard out in that year: Tackhead, Trouble Funk, Sly & Robbie, Eric B, Joyce Sims, Mantronix, Prince etc. (there's an account of PSV by Mancky, who recalls tracks including Jocelyn Brown ‘Somebody Else’s Guy’, InDeep ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’, Gwen Guthrie ‘Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent’, A Certain Ratio ‘Shack Up’ and Funkadelic 'One Nation Under a Groove').

The PSV - I didn't realize until recently that stood for Public Service Vehicles, it being at one time a social club for bus workers (photo by Richard Davies via Paul Wright on twitter)

Finally in Brixton there was the Prince of Wales, a gay club on the corner of Coldharbour Lane. A cheap night out - £1 in rather than £5 for the Fridge - my main memory of it is dancing to extended mixes of Madonna and Hi-NRG tracks like Taffy's I Love My Radio. There's still a pub there, but it's half the size of the old gay club which occupied that whole corner, including where the KFC is now. I think the club closed down in the late 80s having achieved some notoriety in the 1987 trial of serial killer Michael Lupo, who was arrested after being spotted in the place.

That gloomy ending aside, 1987 was a pretty good year!

(a really good take on London 1980s nightlife is You’re too Young to Remember the Eighties – Dancing in a different time, which Controlled Weirdness wrote for Datacide. Great tales of warehouse parties, the Wag, Mud Club etc. and the times when almost all legal clubs closed by 2 am)

Update, October 2021:

Found at archive.org, a review of London nightlife from issue no. 1 of LM magazine, January 1987 (pretty terrible Lifestyle Magazine not to be confused with later Living Marxism). The article mentions some rubbish clubs but does big up both Locomotion and The Fridge, the latter 'the hippest club outside the West End' with Jay Strongman playing 'Washington DC go-go, New York hip-hop, Chicago house music, old R&B and more traditional soul and funk in a cold but packed venue. While Brixton is not normally associated with trendiness, the multiracial mix that characterises today's club scene is no better expressed than here. Wear your Levi 501s'.  The Harp Club in New Cross (later the Venue) also gets a mention, didn't go Flim Flam night there but did go to indie/post-punk Million Rubber Bands/Totally Wired nights there.

@TheJazzDad on twitter noticed this article was written by Simon Goffe, later manager of Roni Size and working with Giles Peterson at Mistral Productions. 

'Come down to the Alexandra opposite Clapham Common tube... and blow your brains on a mixture of Northern and funk. Drinks are pub prices. Arrive early or you won't get in' (Black Echoes, 14 March 1987). Steppers at 414 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton also gets a mention - later Club 414.

Bruce Turner - Pavlova

Bruce Turner's painting 'Pavlova' is a remarkable early modernist image of a dancer in motion painted in around 1912. I saw it yesterday in Tate Britain, where it is currently on display.



Don't know too much about Turner (1894-1963), but he was from Leeds and seemingly involved in the Leeds Art Club, an interesting avant garde grouping from before the First World War through which flowed various counter-currents including socialism, anarchism, spiritualism, suffragism and theosophy



Anna Pavlova made her sensational first appearance in London in 1910, and performed at the Leeds Grand on 17 January 1912 advertised as the 'dancing revelation of the age' (see Leeds Play Bills). Maybe Turner was there.

Bobby Sands & The Rhythm of Time

I've been meaning to post for a while on the Irish hunger strike in 1981, an event that had a big impact on me when I was growing up. 30 years ago the hunger strike was in its final weeks - Mickey Devine had been the tenth and last to die on 20 August, and the protest came to an end on 3 October. One thing that makes it hard to write about, at least for me, is that it is hardly ever mentioned in Britain now - even in leftist/anarchist circles. Most people who weren't around at the time are thus unware of what it was all about or the context in which it took place. To try and explain all that is beyond me right now, let alone to convey the feeling of living through these times.

One observation I will make for now is that contrary to the often unengaged nature of art in Britain, the art world is one of the few places where the memory of the hunger strike has lingered, albeit in only a few places. I was reminded of that recently when I saw Richard Hamilton's The Citizen in Tate Britain [top], a painting depicting Bobby Sands (the first hunger striker to die). I was reminded of that again when reflecting on this week's death of Hamilton. His partner Rita Donagh also produced work referencing the H-Blocks, the prison blocks where the protest took place [Single Cell Block, 1982,below].


I also recently watched Steve McQueen's film Hunger, an outstanding meditation on the events with Michael Fassbender playing the part of Sands. It is very evocative of the time, the sound of prison officers' truncheons banging out a rhythm on riot shields (and on the flesh of prisoners) echoed by the sound of dustbin lids being banged on the streets outside by the prisoners' supporters. And the chilling sound of Thatcher's voice...

Of course Bobby Sands was a writer himself, penning the lyrics to Back Home in Derry - most famously recorded by Christy Moore.



Sands' poem The Rhythm of Time mentions, among other things, Wat Tyler, Wounded Knee and Spartacus. I like this version of it set to music by Hot Ash:

Summer 2011 Police and Parties

Summer police and party news from England....

Police use taser in North West London (Harrow Observer, 7 September 2011)

'Riot police had to disperse an out-of-hand party in Harrow in the early hours of Sunday during which a man was Tasered. These members of the specialist Territorial Support Group were aiding Harrow police officers and members of the dog section in breaking up the rowdy event in Harrow View, which was attended by 200 people in a block of flats described locally as a special unit for single mothers. Revellers turned on officers as they tried to move them on, throwing bricks and bottles.

A 28-year-old man from Northolt was struck with the electrical incapacitating weapon but required no medical treatment and was subsequently arrested on suspicion of affray. He has since been bailed until a date in October. Police attended the scene around 2.30am after calls from residents and Harrow Council's environmental health officer...'

Norfolk (Norfolk Police, 30 August 2011)

'A man has been charged under licensing legislation after police shut down an illegal rave in an area of woodland in West Norfolk over the Bank Holiday weekend. Up to 100 people were in attendance with around 20 vehicles parked nearby in an area of woodland known locally as Old Belt. Officers were dispatched to the scene and blocked possible entrances/exits and the event was safely closed down by about 6am.

Two people were arrested and sound equipment, vinyl records and a van used for the unlicensed event near Grimston were seized. 27-year-old Liam Curtis of Common Close in West Winch has been charged with carrying on an unauthorised licensable activity, namely a rave. He has been released on bail to appear before King's Lynn Magistrates Court on Thursday 22 September. A 24-year-old woman was released without charge'

Bedfordshire 1 (About My Area Bedfordshire, 16 August 2011)

'Bedfordshire Police closed down an illegal rave which took place in Sandy during the early hours of Sunday August 14, 2011. At around 12.30am, more than 200 partygoers descended on land close to the RSPB Lodge in Sandy. Members of the public alerted Bedfordshire Police and officers moved quickly to close off roads surrounding the areas and speak to the organisers of the illegal gathering who were warned that their equipment would be seized if they did not close down the event. The organisers complied with the police request and officers, with the assistance of the force helicopter, remained at the location to ensure that all equipment was removed and no one returned to the area.

Chief Inspector Neill Waring said the operation sends a warning to other organisers that Bedfordshire Police will not tolerate raves that are unlicensed by the local authority and present serious health and safety risk to revellers. He said: "The key to interrupting raves is early intervention and although in this case, the rave was already underway, local people supplied us with intelligence that helped us to identify the location and put the appropriate resources in place. We would ask the public to work with us and contact us the moment they suspect a rave may be being organised, since once they are established they are notoriously difficult to disrupt. Signs to look out for include postings on web sites, notice boards or convoys of cars going around in circles and waiting for last minute instructions on where to go. Parents should think twice about where their teenagers are going and certainly ask questions if they ask to be dropped at a dark or unusual location."

Bedfordshire 2 (Bedfordshire on Sunday, 22 August 2011)

'At around 10am on Sunday Bedfordshire Police, assisted by officers from Northamptonshire closed down a rave that had been taking place ovenright on land to the rear of Poddington airfield. Three people were arrested including two men and a 19-year-old female in addition to two men arrested on Saturday night when police attempted to prevent the rave going ahead.

Three of the four men, all in their early twenties were arrested in connection with the organisation of the event and have now been released on bail. The female and the fourth man were arrested on suspicion of drugs offences and were kept in custody. It’s in connection with Operation Extra which has the message that Bedfordshire will not tolerate illegal raves'.

[The party was by the Santa Pod drag racing track on the Bedfordshire/Northamptonshire border, see video below]

Anti-National: Love Techno, Hate Britain?

A global economic crisis is leading to global austerity - yet paradoxically in places at the sharp end populist nationalism is resurgent amidst the demonstrations and riots. A recent survey of the situation in Greece notes that 'Nationalism (mostly in a populist form) is dominant, favoured both by the various extreme right wing cliques as well as by left parties and leftists. Even for a lot of proletarians or petty-bourgeois hit by the crisis who are not affiliated with political parties, national identity appears as a last imaginary refuge when everything else is rapidly crumbling. Behind the slogans against the “foreign, sell out government” or for the “Salvation of the country”, “National sovereignty” and a “New Constitution” lies a deep feeling of fear and alienation to which the “national community” appears as a magical unifying solution. Class interests are often expressed in nationalist and racist terms producing a confused and explosive political cocktail'.

Look too at Egypt where the army seized power by posing as the guardian of the nation in the revolutionary upheaval there; or at Libya where 'foreign national' migrant workers have suffered abuse and worse as potential 'mercenaries' during the revolt. Adrift on the ocean of debt and recession the ship of the nation state seems to be a place of safety even as it sinks... the dream of returning back to an imaginary time when our lives weren't at the mercy of abstract, impersonal forces.

There are a number of ways to respond to this. One is to go with the flow and try to put a postive spin on it, to imagine a kind of politically correct patriotism - see for instance Billy Bragg's advocacy of a 'Progressive Patriot' position [insert standard Orwell quote about patriotism being good, but nationalism being bad, whatever the difference is]. But loving the place you happen to know is no basis for any kind of politics - that doesn't make it any better than all the places you don't happen to know.

Another approach is an abstract internationalism which simply affirms a global solidarity without getting hands dirty criticising the prevalent nationalism of where you live. In Berlin earlier this year, on the other hand, I was struck by the continuing virulence of the anti-national position: a total refusal to have any truck with celebrating Germany or German culture. Here's some images from that current:

'Keing tag fur die Nation' ('No day for the nation').

'Staat, Nation, Kapital. Scheisse' (State, Nation, Capital. Shit') - demonstration against day to celebrate German reunification.

Fight the Empire, Destroy Germany

Deutschland Abschalten (Shut down Germany)

'Everybody loves Germany. We don't'

'Love techno, hate Germany'

There are some problems with parts of the 'anti-national' tendency, especially when German exceptionalism is over-emphasised. The point isn't to be just 'anti-German' as if other people's nationalism is OK - and indeed in Germany many people in that current moved on from describing themselves as 'antideutsch' to 'antinational'.

What would an 'anti-British' imagery look like? What is it we would be against - the nation state? The political formation? The notion of supremacy of British culture and history? Would it be worthwhile? Just thinking aloud here, but if you want to have a go at some stickers let's see what you come up with!

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