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For
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Updated July 2023
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Greater London Council Festivals 1984. |
"NEW DEAL NOW !" N.U.S Demo and Festival, Battersea Park. London March 10th 1984.
Dancing With The Dog Billy Bragg , Benjamin Zepheniah. Ken Livingstone
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"Jobs For A Change", GLC Festival, Jubilee Gardens. London, June 10th 1984. Billy Bragg, The Smiths, Hank Wangford, Misty In Roots, Ivor Cutler, Mari Wilson, Aswad, Ekome,Abakush,The Redskins, Hi Jinks, Bario Latino ,Vocem , Grand Union. |
Not sure if this was the first of the " Jobs For A Change " concerts hosted by the Labour led Greater London Council , but this was the event where the Redskins set was disrupted by 80 or so skinhead fascists who objected to the Redskins leftist polictics. It must have rankled to see fellow skins supporting " Red" Ken . There is a right wing blog we are not going to quote here that discusses this incident , its pretty hate filled stuff, so avoid unless you want to experience a prime example of mindless racism and see what we were up against in the 80s. After the fight was over the rest of the day went ahead, there is even an audience recording of the Redskins set - which presumably archives the fighting that went on in front of and on the stage. |
Morrisey, Ken Livingstone and Mari WIlson |
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Hank Wangford and Slim Gaiilard , both shown at GLC shows in 1984 or 85 © Nick Hider
( visit Nicks Flickr site to view more great photos from this era )
Recordings and setlists
| Billy Bragg 6-10-84
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The Redskins 6-10-84
thanks
to Bazza from http://www.redskins.co.uk
for the setlist Looking for cover or photos from this gig |
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The Smiths 6-10-84
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Comments relating to the End of the GLC
GLC Free Festival Battersea Park . London, July 29th 1984. |
John Sebastian, Paul Butterfield. Christy Moore Roy Harper and Jimmy Page Alan Price . |
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There appear to have been three stages for this one, which was held to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the courageous activists , the Tollpuddle Martyrs. If you follow this link, you will find some stills of John Sebastian and Paul Butterfield as well as some more images of Harper and Page onstage. Also nice review of the show by Carl Stickley who has helped us out before with other stuff for the site . G'day Carl !
All images © Syd Hancock |
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Recordings and setlists
Roy
Harper (with Jimmy Page, Steve Broughton, Tony Franklin and Nik Green)
A 40-minute soundboard recording exists .
GLC Free Festival Brockwell Park . London, August 4th 1984. The Damned. Spear Of Destiny The Fall. Benjamin Zephaniah New Model Army Jools Brilliant Strawberry Switchblade Pleasure and the Beast HI Jinx. The Opposition
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The Fall © Dave Walking |
Brilliant © Augusto Croce |
An atypical British summers day, rain in the morrning , but by gum, it cleared for the afternoon's festivities, the sun shone . A good size crowd watched the opening acts and they were content NOT to throw cans at the support bands . Firstly : The Opposition, Pleasure and the Beast , Hi Jinx and then Brilliant. A few jeers at Youth , Brilliant's bass player, but no real trouble.
The Opposition © Augusto Croce |
The crowd were reasonably well behaved until Joolz took to the stage . Considering this show was free , one would have thought that the audience would have been content to just talk loudly when bands were not to their liking , but we have to remember this was the middle 80s, the moron element in crowds had developed nicely during the late 70s and they were used to lobbing cans , empty or full or urine , at objects onstage they did not like and some of the crowd did NOT like Joolz . However she was up to dealing with their capers. When cans were thown she responded with a clever verbal putdown that slowed the barrage of cans down considerably .
New Model Army © Augusto Croce |
New Model Army had many dedicated fans and they welcomed their heroes with gusto, they were well received but when they departed, their replacements, The Fall , were continuously bottled throughout their set by a contingent who were just not prepared to let anything they did not approve of occupy the stage.
The Fall soldiered on manfully, as their solid Northern hides had by now developed a thick skin after years of gigging . Most of the crowd appreciated their music, it was only a small minority who were causing trouble, ain't it always the same, a few morons fuck things up for the rest of us ?
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Kirk Brandon |
The two lasses who made up Strawberry Switchblade, fared even less well than the Fall ,since their inspiration was the blonde chantuese Nico ,hardly a household hero .Their music and unusual costume choices did not go down well with the intolerant elements in the crowd. They had a tough time of it , but managed to survive the jeering somehow. Spear of Destiny seemed to REALLY get under the skin of the mob, they were continuously canned. Their music wasn't hard core and contained elements of soul , their name was somewhat controversial ( the phrase had Nazi connections, although Brandon denied that this was so ) . Whatever the cause, their somewhat androgenous leader Kirk Brandon was hit on the face and sustained a cut and the front of stage became a nasty mosh pit , with violence flaring . Initial sound problems could not have helped their cause either. |
The Fall © Dave Walking |
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Spear Of Destiny © Augusto Croce Poet Benjamin Zephania managed to calm the crowd during his recitation of anti establishment poems ,but, as roadies set up the Damned's equipment, the appearance onstage of Cap'n Sensible whilst he was performing did distract from his performance. This was also the last time Sensible was to play with the band , he had not performed at the Nostell Priory show the weekend before. |
The Damned , with lurking Cap'n Sensible in prison suit © Augusto Croce |
When the Damned came on so did the rain , Ken Livingstone gave a speech just before the Damned about the Conservatives plans to do away with the GLC and they were introduced onstage by the Dr (of Dr and the Medics who were still a pretty underground band then). The Damned were the band that many of the can throwers had come to see . There was still a lot of rowdy behaviour , but generally in approval of the band onstage .
In retrospect, it would have been better to have a different set of artists on the bill. By this time , people's tastes had seemed to polarise and crowd behaviour- fuelled by booze and gawd knows what else - had deteriorated to such an extent that even at a free show a significant element of the audience were just not prepared to tolerate music they did not like . A mixed bill such as this did not work if one had a certain type of band -such as The Damned headlining. Elements of their audience were simply too partisan .....
The Damned onstage at Brockwell park .View more Damned pix here . |
© Dave Walking |
© Dave Walking |
The year of the Miners. Ken’s GLC were doing all they could to use the year long Miner’s strike to take on Thatcher. It was deliberate by the Tories. Miners and their ilk were “the enemy within”. Break the Miners, you break the Unions. It was ideology gone mad. Socialist Worker Party, Revolutionary Workers Party, National Union of Miners, whatever. THEY were responsible for all our ills. Break down in law and orderblahblah who’s going to pay for it blah rivers of blood rant swamped by alien culture shoutyblah get on your bike ranty-rant moaning minis ….The Tories was tooled up. It looks tame by comparison to today’s TV wars but the Battle of Orgreave was upsetting. The famous shot of a policeman on horse-back clubbing a woman protester. Policeman with their number badges removed so they all looked the same and couldn't be reported. Up for aggro, on overtime. Police had always been a tool of control but never had it seemed so blatant. They were used as a political force, not policing. You couldn’t go anywhere without seeing people with yellow buckets, collecting for the Miners. Along with all this, unemployment had hit 3 million, up 2 million since the Tories came to power in 1979, and people were pissed off. The GLC put on various free concerts as a way of rallying the troops. Brockwell Park is just south of Brixton. It was my first time there. I ended up living half a mile from it when I left uni. My uni friends Craig and Andrea were down from Stirling so we went. Free bands in the park. The crowd was big and varied. Banners, flags, books, megaphones. Black flagging squatters and crusties. Beardy Trots. Leaflet-ing students. Day Trippers. Punx. Skins. Really heavy atmosphere. We were far enough back to avoid the mosh pit, which was fierce. Real Brew-Crew pissheads. Strawberry Switchblade were bee-hived fey strummers. Red Ken made a speech. A big drunk angry punk went steaming by us to get to the stage pointing at Ken, shouting “You’re a cunt!” over and over. Brilliant had Youth who’d just left Killing Joke. Big slabby bass wobble with his bare arse visible through the huge hole in his jeans. Druggy cool. New Model Army got a rabid response. The crowd pointing as one to the stage screaming, “I believe in getting vengeance/I believe in getting the bastard/getting the bastard /getting the bastard!!” Tingling stuff. Suddenly a bloke is chasing a skinhead, waving a bottle, screaming “come on you cunt, have a go!” The crowd split as they burst through. I remember pushing Andrea out the way, both of us really frightened. The skinhead got a bottle over his head which shattered and drew blood. We ran. Kirk Brandon’s Spear of Destiny was tight and fast. They were accused of being fascistic (Aryan looks, dyed blonde quiffs, leather) but it was more fetishistic, in a tortured soul sort of way, ahem. More crowd chanting on “I am Liberator!” Good, spunky, angry, juice releasing stuff. The skinhead passed by with a bandage and 2 policemen looking for his assailant. First time I’d seen The Fall. The Mighty Fall. They were already legend then. Or rather Mark E. Smith was. “Bingo Masters Break Out” “Fiery Jack” “How I Wrote Elastic Man”. I thought I recognized those (from listening to John Peel), but years later I saw the setlist and they didn’t play them. Weird, quirky, rough little spews. Smith’s voice from some twisted acid universe. Dark, dark, dark humour. I still don’t fully understand them. Well, I don’t understand them. Smith’s whole physical being on stage is one big fuck-you shrug. He’s the closest we’ve got to a Burroughs or Ginsberg. But he’s better than that. Unique. It is Marmite though. I like them. Stage lights beginning to shine through.
Crowd really big and pissed. The Damned! Chants of “Sensible’s a Wanker,” Captain Sensible in his trademark shades-and-beret. “Love Song” and they were off. Dave Vanian in undertakers coat, white make-up and Bride of Frankenstein streaks in his dyed black mane. All the stuff off the greatest hits album and more. “Wait For the Black Out”. “New Rose”, “NeatNeatNeat”, “Smash It Up”!! Crowd swaying back and forth, side to side across the stage. They do “Anarchy in the UK” as an encore. “Don’t do it!” groans a punk. Long, shuffle back home. thanks to Carl Stickley for providing his review |
Recordings and setlists
Spear of Destiny were recorded from the audience, looking for set list ......
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New Model Army 8-04-84
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Looking for cover or photos from this gig |
| The Fall 8-04-84
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Looking for cover or photos from this gig |
| The Damned 8-04-84
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Looking for cover or photos from this gig |
Strawberry Switchblade Pix and Sounds Review
GLC Free Festival
Victoria Park . London,
August 19th 1984.
Mighty Wah / Spear Of Destiny.
A much more sedate affair than the Brockwell Park do, no bottle throwing we understand, but thats all the info we have at the moment- can anyone help ?
GLC Festivals
If you have photos, recollections, set lists, newspaper reports or tapes of this event then Contact us if you can help.
