In the 1970s, the National Front were on the march. So Britain’s music fans and artists united. As a new show celebrates RAR’s achievements, we examine its impact, its legacy – and its thrilling, shambolic climactic concert
‘We had to tell our own audiences that we’d fight them,” says Mykaell Riley, one of the founding members of UK reggae band Steel Pulse. “People had paid to come in and beat you up. So we would make it clear: if you come on stage, we will kick the fuck out of you.”
Riley can laugh at how that sounds now but back in the 1970s, when the National Front were marching down streets, playing live music was no laughing matter for black musicians. It didn’t help that popular white artists of the time were fanning the flames – from Eric Clapton openly supporting Enoch Powell’s anti-immigration rhetoric to David Bowie claiming Hitler was the first rock star. Britain found itself at a crossroads: would it accept what seemed to be a fascist uprising – or send it packing?
