Over the centuries, women have often been written out of history….. it still continues. I have been called, recently a liar. That is the most hurtful accusation I can ever receive. I am still hearing folk, interviewed on Radio or the press, who were involved – after those early days, simply leave me out of that History…The cause is more important than my feelings… but to be called a liar is well… ????’ For those who are interested, a few people have written about this period of Activism and Politics during the 1970/80s. They did the homework, the research. Thank you.

It is 50 years since Rock agains Racism was founded by …… Red Saunders Founder, Rock Against Racism 
Roger Huddle Founder, Rock Against Racism 

Red Saunders and Rodger Huddle came to visit me in my flat next door to The Mangrove. We had a long talk. RAR was up and running. The first RAR gig with my musical pals, was at The Princess Alice Pub in Forest Gate, East London. The Band at that time included Henry McCullough from Northern Ireland, formerly of Eire Apparent, Grease Band and Wings. At the time, we were in a roving band of other musical scallywags. All at the mercy of that business called – Music. Then, of course, others tell a different tale. Those early Gigs for RAR, some guys claim to this day, were the ones that kicked it all off. And who was I? I was just a woman—a woman of no consequence.

The life I travelled inspired me take to streets and stages as an activist. Today, numerous exhibitions across the country showcase photos, articles, books, and other works that document the period from the late 1970s to the 1980s, a time when people fought against Racism and Oppression. Now the world is once more in greater peril. In the mid to late 1960s, from teens to 20s, after a time of living in bed-sits, friends’ sofas and the occasional Park bench or Railway Station, I moved into the area known by the locals as The Grove, situated between Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne Grove, London W2, with Portobello Road running as the spine of the community. Below – 113 St Stevens Gardens. W2. I lived there from 1966 to 1979. Became homeless and moved to a Squat in Bethnal Green. It became /short life social housing, then a fully mutual Housing Co – op. I had found another good community.

My life in The Grove began on a sofa in Swinbrooke Road, then a flat at 113 St.Stevens Gardens. Basement – and above 3 flat on the landings, no private door and a bathroom on the 2nd landing for 3 families. Not easy, but it was a roof. Here I gave birth to my son Sam.

Below. My very early days, my second Band. The Race. 1965/8 Singing at The Marquee on Wardour Street in Soho.

Although we began to pack out gigs on the circuit, we were not signed. The Bands that were getting those deals/contracts were, in the main, 4 or 5 white men. Various management companies and agents asked me to get rid of the black Musicians, otherwise they couldn’t sell me. We did make one single. https://wordpress.com/post/carolgrimes.com/21938.

Then I moved with my Son, Sam, aged 5, to All Saints Road, next door to The Mangrove. There was often a gathering in that street. I had good people all around. A wonderful community.

Above. A Benefit for the Powis Square Play Hut. Sam is on his Drum kit, and Louis is on the Congas. I met Louis in Earls Court during my bed-sit days or crashing on friends’ floors. He was also a very good baker!

Below. All Saints Road when we lived in the little yellow house.

RAR recorded an album with various bands. I was afraid to share my songs and poems in those times. In most situations, it was the men who wrote the songs. As I had been barely educated, I had a big fear of making a fool of myself! I eventually met inspiring musicians along the road, who encouraged me to write my own stuff. So I pulled them out from inside my head and a cardboard box underneath the bed. My life changed. The words poured out …..From childhood memories. From my life and observations so far. I regret not sharing my words and songs in those earlier days.

The Mau Mau track above. From Recordings in the 1980s, Eyes Wide Open. user1698211

When I was a child growing up in the 50s –
I remember The Mau Mau.
Portrayed in the newsreels. I heard it on the radio.
I saw it in the papers – Savage hoards of cannibals.
People who killed and plundered, raiding white people’s homes and lands.

Mau Mau was the bogeyman!
The dark reason for my fears in dreams.
Flashing eyes, spears, and deafening screams.
They crashed through jungles and crept across the lands —
Silently in the night, it comes to get me while I’m in my bed.
And I was afraid.
Why did nobody tell me?
Who was Mau Mau and why?

On a hot earth still throbbing with the heat of bloody turmoil.
Cities, whose riches and splendour are denied to those who built them
with their sweat and their pain.

But spirits don’t die – They cry but don’t die.

Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Piccolo Flute – Simon Clark*
Backing Vocals – Didi Hopkins, Dyan Birch, Hanna Wilson, Johnny Meringues, Josefina Cupido
Congas, Percussion – Neville Murray
Double Bass – Mario Castronari
Drums, Percussion – Mike Bradley
Electric Bass – Andy Herbert
Flute – Angele Veltmeyer
Guitar, Backing Vocals – Maciek Hrybowicz
Horns – The Kick Horns
Keyboards, Backing Vocals – Steve Lodder
Producer – Alastair Gavin (tracks: 2 to 11), Maciek Hrybowicz* (tracks: 1)
Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Tim Sanders
Trombone – Paul Nieman
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Roddy Lorimer
Vocals, Percussion – Carol Grimes

Above. Neil Hubbard, Guitar, Louis Congas RIP. Sam, my son, plays the drum kit. Dee, one of the finest men I’ve ever met. RIP. He was the Chef in The Mangrove for many years. The community gathering to raise money for a play hut in Powis Square for the local kids.

BELOW – our home in All Saints Road.

Below later years.

A letter to The Press. August 2018.

Rock Against Racism Forest Gate gig By Neandra Etienne 30 October 2021

On Friday, 12 November 1976, at the Princess Alice, Carol Grimes and the Boogie Band performed at the first Rock Against Racism gig (RAR), organised by Roger Huddle, Red Saunders, local anti-racists and a few dock workers.

At the time, the popularity of the National Front (NF) had increased via the ballot box, on the streets and at West Ham United football ground. To counter their presence, Roger and the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) started to leaflet the football fans. He said:

“When we first leafleted as the ANL, most fans were very pleased to see us, which once again showed that the NF were feared but not supported by everyone.”

The NF blamed Black and Asian people for the cuts in social spending and rising unemployment. This led to increased attacks on these ethnic groups. The situation was not helped by musician Eric Clapton, who made a racist rant during a Birmingham concert in August 1976. He called for the repatriation of all immigrants and gave support to the far-right racist Tory Enoch Powell. Roger explains why it was important to make a stand against the NF by forming RAR as a political movement:

“We knew what the NF stood for from studying Hitler and Germany in the 1930s. The NF’s hatred of all things foreign, including Black music. “It seemed a good idea to hold a gig claiming diversity and cultural unity against the ideas of the NF. We decided right from the beginning to call it Rock Against Racism: Reggae Soul Rock ‘n’ Roll, Jazz Funk Punk – Our Music.”

Roger and Red launched their book Reminiscences of RAR: Rock Against Racism 1976-1982 on 12 November 2016. They asked 71 people to write their memories of the period and published them alphabetically as written.

Roger and Red also contributed to White Riot, a 2019 documentary film about Rock Against Racism. Roger feels that RAR helped to destabilise the NF:

“Across the country, we broke the NF, sending them into the dustbin of history. Music changed; the diversity of our everyday lives was reflected in the culture. Racism ebbs and flows and must always be fought. We were part of the history of that fight.” There was a second gig at the Royal College of Art in December that year and a third on May Day 1977 at the Roundhouse.

Dear all our fellow authors, things are moving very fast at the moment, and we face the resurgence of Fascist organisations here in Britain. Below is a letter drafted by some founders of RAR and the ANL calling for wider anti fascist action.
Statement from the founder members of ANL & RAR. All of us who are committed to a tolerant, multiracial and multicultural society face a growing and serious challenge from the alt-right and fascist right in the UK. Encouraged by Donald Trump and his close associate Steve Bannon, the release from jail of former EDL leader Tommy Robinson, the storming of Bookmarks – the socialist bookshop, and the disturbingly large mobilisations on the streets of London, Leeds, Manchester and elsewhere underline the scale of the threat. Boris Johnson’s recent racist and Islamophobic remarks are a calculated bid in the same direction. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s recent statements calling for an Anti-Nazi League-type cultural and political campaign are very welcome and timely. We need a broader-based, imaginative and vibrant campaign that unequivocally opposes all forms of racism, islamophobia and antisemitism.

As founder members over 40 years ago of both the original Anti-Nazi League and its sister organisation Rock Against Racism, we think that Stand Up To Racism, Love Music Hate Racism, and Unite Against Fascism have been established within this tradition, and indeed, these organisations have already provided essential and much-needed rallying points of opposition to the far right. This is a process which, as John argues, now urgently needs to be deepened and extended, uniting all people and organisations of goodwill against the enormous challenges we face over the next few years from the alt and fascist Right. This will involve applying the tactics of the ANL of mass propaganda for the 21st century and an unrelenting opposition to the racists and fascists wherever they organise, with the cultural appeal of ANL/ RAR of large-scale music and similar events in asserting the values of our multiracial and diverse society.

We believe this needs to be done with the utmost speed. Tommy Robinson and his international backers are preparing a national and international tour this autumn, seeking to build support and influence. Developments in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Italy highlight how urgent this now is. Echoes of the 1930s are all too real. Whatever our other political differences, we believe the time to come together against the deadly bacillus of racism and fascism is now. Please add your name to the unity statement published by Stand Up to Racism and thereby strengthen us all in building opposition to a new but equally dangerous common enemy. Paul Holborrow, Roger Huddle, Carol Grimes, Red Saunders. Reply to me and/or go to: http://www.standuptoracism.org.uk/press-release-john-mcdonnell-anti-nazi-league/

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s recent call for an Anti-Nazi League-type cultural and political campaign is therefore very welcome and timely. We need a broader-based, imaginative and vibrant campaign that unequivocally opposes all forms of racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism.

As founder members over 40 years ago of the original Anti-Nazi League (ANL) and its sister organisation Rock Against Racism, we think that Stand up to Racism, Love Music Hate Racism and Unite Against Fascism have been established firmly within this tradition, and indeed these organisations have already provided essential and much-needed rallying points of opposition to the rising far right. This is a process that, as John argues, now urgently needs to be deepened and extended, uniting all people and organisations of goodwill against the huge challenges we face over the next few years from the far right and fascists. This will involve applying the ANL’s tactics of mass propaganda, unrelenting opposition to the racists and fascists wherever they organise, and the cultural appeal that ANL/RAR pioneered, with large-scale music and similar events asserting the values of our multiracial and diverse society.

We believe this needs to be done with the utmost speed. Tommy Robinson and his international backers are likely to be preparing further national and international events in the autumn, seeking to build support and influence. Developments in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Italy highlight how urgent this is. Echoes of the 1930s are all too real. Whatever our other political differences, we believe the time to come together against the poison of racism and fascism is now.

Peter Hain House of Lords; founder member, Anti-Nazi League 
Paul Holborow Founder member and national secretary, Anti-Nazi League 
Red Saunders Founder, Rock Against Racism 
Roger Huddle Founder, Rock Against Racism 
Jerry Dammers Musician, The Specials, 2 Tone, Rock Against Racism 
Carol Grimes Musican, Rock Against Racism 
Tom Robinson Musician, Rock against Racism 
Mykaell Riley Musician, Bass Culture, Steel Pulse, Rock Against Racism

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Above. The Round House, Chalk Farm. London, one of the 1st few gigs for RAR. 2 amazing drummers! Greedy me. Glen Lefleur and Mitch Mitchell, of the Jimi Hendrix band fame.

Below. The times in All Saints Road.

Outside our yellow door. Susie and Sam. Below- the kids hanging out. The days when the community watched out for our collection of kids. Sam, Dee’s Boys, Tristram and Tarquin. Neil Hubbard from The Grease Band and then Kokomo

Below. A few books where my life lies within.

Below A few benefit gigs in those days

Below. A few projects at The Drill Hall Arts Centre. London. With Hannah Wilson, Annie Whitehead, Josefina Cupido & Gail Ann Dorsey, and me.

Below Soul Britannia. With Root Jackson, Linda Lewis, Madeline Bell, Hamish Stuart ……

For more, see. – https://wordpress.com/post/carolgrimes.com/12298

Below. Scene on the Green, Stoke Newington 1989.

With Juliet Roberts, Ian Shaw, Me & Charlie Ezikea

https://wordpress.com/post/carolgrimes.com/12422

Project Above. & below with Najma & Jannette.

Below – more gigs shouting about injustice. And I began to go out and about with my Poems. I put my brave pants on!

A wonderful project, one of many, with Rock School and the Princes Trust.

Below – Singing under the Lions in Trafalgar Square for Bengali friends… A Community Centre in Whitechapel, London. Sam, by then, was a Punk! With Dave Vasco, Shelly Morris, Ollie Marland, George Butler, and Colin Bass.

Below are a few interesting events. 2020s

https://wordpress.com/post/carolgrimes.com/9937

• TAGS
• Community News
• Princess Alice
• Rock Against Racism

Voices from Rock Against Racism RAR brought together black and white youth. Don Letts, DJ

Pioneering musician, filmmaker and DJ Don Letts made his name playing reggae to the emerging punk scene in London the mid-1970s.

Britain in the 1970s was a very different place to what it is today – and the way the music scene was divided on racial lines is just one example of how much more polarised things were.

“At that time black people were still struggling to find a place for themselves in British society,” says Don.

“Our parents’ generation – who had mostly arrived in the 1950s – had desperately tried to fit into white society by trying to ‘act white’.

“In the process they’d found nothing but rejection. Many young black people, including myself, decided that we weren’t going to follow that route.

“There was quite a lot of racial tension as I was growing up. We had Enoch Powell with his ‘rivers of blood’ speech and we had the National Front with their swastikas.

“In west London, where I lived, ‘KBW’ was painted in big letters on the walls all over the place – it stood for ‘Keep Britain White’. And on top of that, we had the police on our backs too.

Tribe

“Being young and black in the early 1970s was like being part of a lost tribe. Many of us rejected the idea of trying to ‘fit in’ and became influenced by some of the radical figures in the US civil rights movement.

“We wanted to create something that reflected that pride in being black – and the British reggae scene developed out of this background.

“For most young people, music is a laboratory in which we invent ourselves. Creating our own music was one of the first steps towards us trying to find our own identity.

“It was a recognition that being black and British meant that we lived different lives to those back in Jamaica. Though we loved it, the music from there didn’t completely fit our circumstances.”

The process of trying to create a distinctive black and British identity gave rise to a somewhat short lived British reggae scene, with acts such as Aswad, Steel Pulse, Matumbi, and a hybrid of soul and reggae that was known as “lover’s rock”.

“The reggae sound system scene that I was around in the early-1970s was mainly black,” says Don. “But I don’t think too much should be read into that. No one set out to make reggae an exclusively black music, but we were kind of forced into these musical ghettos. The reggae scene wasn’t hostile to white people.”

Britain already had a tradition of white kids gravitating towards black music – a tradition established well before the 1970s. It started with a fascination with early R’n’B in the 1950s and 1960s, and continued with ska and rocksteady in the 1960s.

Sound system

“The difference in the 1970s was that this music was no longer being imported from 3,000 miles away – the people next door were propelling it,” says Don. “In 1976 I took John Lydon [who would later be the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten] and Joe Strummer [who became the front man for The Clash] down to a reggae sound system night.

“They were some of the first white faces to seen in the club. The white rockers tended to be a little apprehensive at first, but they got quite a lot of respect just for going through the door of the club.

“And you could hear the influence of reggae on the early punk bands – in the heavy basslines, in the rebellious lyrics, and in the idea of songs as musical reportage.

“The feeling that black people were contributing something was a very important element in the making of an integrated music scene. What we got out of coming together with punk was exposure – and a chance to get paid!”

The idea of creating a hybrid music scene wasn’t always automatic, and sometimes there had to be arguments about it.

“I fought to get Bob Marley to recognise the significance of punk,” recalls Don. “He was quite reluctant initially, but eventually he got it. That’s when he recorded his tribute, Punky Reggae Party.”

The background of economic recession, mass unemployment and the threat posed by racist police and the fascist National Front were eloquently summed up by Johnny Rotten in two words – “No future”.

But according to Don, those pressures had the effect of giving black and white teenagers a common experience and common will to fight back:

“The rebellious nature of both reggae and punk provided the soundtrack for so many of the battles of that time. I suppose that is why people still want to talk, listen and dance to them today.”

Poko, Musician

Misty In Roots were part of the emerging reggae scene in the mid-1970s and played a major role in the anti-racist movement in Southall, west London. Founder member Poko remembers how their music became part of the struggle.

Southall was a mixed community of whites, African-Caribbeans and Asians that coexisted in peaceful way. Our band helped set up a community organisation called People Unite to help give cultural and political expression to that.

As the punk movement developed we found that many of them had a love for reggae. Some of them had been around the skinhead thing before punk and had already got into rocksteady and reggae.

So the RAR idea of putting all these different types of music together appealed to us. Misty always had something to say about the world.

At that time industry in Southall was being run down and factories were being closed – black people were always first to be laid-off.

We couldn’t help but reflect that in songs like “Food, Clothes And Shelter” and “Ghetto Of The City”.

But in 1979 things changed. The National Front (NF) decided to have an election meeting in the town hall, and the police resolved to protect them.

The police deliberately stoked-up trouble, and when it broke out they were ready. The police went around mercilessly beating people. They killed anti-Nazi protester Blair Peach and they raided the People Unite headquarters.

They smashed up everything inside and clubbed our manager Clarence Baker so badly that he too almost died. Our keyboard player and drummer were jailed after the raid and the whole thing almost finished our band. But we refused to be cowed.

For the people of Southall it was something that could never be forgotten. We had all been involved in an uprising, the police had bloodied us, and they were still there terrorising us long after the protest had finished.

But among the fear there was also a sense of unity. The whole thing raised the consciousness of the young Asians in particular. And there is still a connection to 1979 to this day.

Across Southall there are Asian-run reggae sound systems – a tradition that started not long after the uprising. A lot of Asian kids began to relate to the spirit of resistance that you find in reggae.

That spirit is still required to fight racism and injustice today, which is why we are playing the 30th anniversary RAR gig.

Carol Grimes, Blues singer

Carol Grimes is a jazz and blues singer who played at the very first Rock Against Racism gig. She told Socialist Worker how she got involved.

At the time of the first RAR gig I was living in Westbourne Grove in west London, very close to the famous Mangrove restaurant. The Mangrove was a gathering place for the Caribbean community and was perpetually under attack from the police.

I could see first hand the way the police treated black people was appalling. I saw them bullying my friend Frank Critchlow, who ran the Mangrove.

I was so angry about it all that I spoke out in an interview with a magazine. And that brought Red Saunders to my door. We were both angry about the way that some high profile musicians were supporting Enoch Powell, and worse.

To me and to many other people this was a chance to say, “This is what London is – it’s young, and it’s black and white together.”

At those early gigs we were putting black and white bands on together. So I was there singing blues, Aswad and Misty In Roots were doing reggae, the punks were doing their thing.

It made the idea of black, brown and white united something real – and that together we could tell the fascists to “fuck off”.

People who had gone along because they were into reggae came away thinking that punk had something to say. People who had come to hear my blues went away having being exposed to reggae.

The whole RAR thing did more than just challenge racism. It said that music didn’t have to be commercial in order to be successful.

But there are still battles to be fought. One of my daughter’s Bangladeshi friends came with her to one of my gigs the other week. He was wearing a T-shirt, with the words “I am not a terrorist”.

I wept because I thought why should this young man feel that he has something to apologise for? He’s as upset by the bomb attacks on London as anyone else. Why should he be made to feel that he is somehow responsible?

Kate Webb, RAR team