Punk

UK 1970s Clash, Sex Pistols, Ska revival, Mekons

The 1978 Clash parody that launched a punk institution

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mekons

Looking back at ‘Never Been In A Riot’, the 1978 debut single by The Mekons that parodied and criticised the message of The Clash’s debut single ‘White Riot.

By Ben Forest

Overstating the importance of The Clash on the punk landscape of the 1970s is a virtual impossibility; for many people, Joe Strummer’s outfit embodied their ‘the only band that matters’ tagline in every aspect of their existence. It is worth noting, though, that not everybody was quite so bowled over by the output of the London outfit.

A couple of hours up the M1, in the musical haven of Leeds, one group of art school students were so perturbed by The Clash’s debut single ‘White Riot’, in fact, that they took it upon themselves to launch a response, in doing so sparking one of the most enduring outfits of the punk and post-punk age: The Mekons. Source: The 1978 Clash parody that launched a punk institution

For those whose memories have been destroyed by youthful glue-sniffing or pogoing accidents, ‘White Riot’ was an often misunderstood track by the Strummer-Jones songwriting partnership. In essence, the song bemoans the complacency of white working-class people, who are not as readily prepared to stand up against their oppressors as the Black population – “Black man got a lot of problems, but they don’t mind throwing a brick”. 

While probably well-meaning, the sentiment of the song is more than a little naive. After all, white people in London weren’t being subjected to horrific racist abuse, institutionalised oppression, and police brutality on a daily basis. Even still, the single had a far more noble aim than many people gave it credit for at the time, with some misguided audiences assuming that the band were calling for race riots.

Luckily, The Mekons were intelligent enough to understand that Strummer and the band weren’t calling for race riots, but that didn’t mean they were any less offended by the track. According to Kevin Lycett, the band thought the song’s sentiment of “I want a riot for us poor downtrodden white people” was nothing short of offensive, and so they decided to write a satirical response to the song, in the form of ‘Never Been in a Riot’. 

An endearingly DIY recording detailing a bloke who has, as the title suggests, never been in a riot or done much of anything else, the single lays bare the phoney machismo present throughout a lot of the early punk scene, as well as the rather naive message of that Clash single. 

Within only one minute and 46 seconds, The Mekons had established the entirety of their sonic manifesto, arguably in a much more effective manner than The Clash had done with their own debut single.

‘Never Been in a Riot’ was The Mekons’ very first release, and it earned the Leeds band an immediate cult following, spurred on by the fact that it was listed as single of the week in the New Musical Express at the time, even if it was never in any danger of breaking into the singles charts. From there, the outfit’s reputation only seemed to grow, and the follow-up single ‘Where Were You?’ remains an indisputable classic of the early post-punk period. 

Today, bordering on half a century later, The Mekons are still going strong with upwards of 25 albums under their belts and an audience that has largely followed them through that extensive discography. Right back at the beginning, though, it all started with a parody of The Clash.

Source: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/1978-clash-parody-launched-a-post-punk-institution/

Gang Of Four’s Jon King on Fighting Fascism

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From how bass guitars make excellent weapons to why feminist artists were so inspiring, Jon King tells Elizabeth Aubrey about the things he learned bashing the fash with Gang Of Four

By Elizabeth Aubrey

To Hell With Poverty!, the new memoir from Gang Of Four singer, singer, lyricist and producer Jon King, is an account of his journey from South London slum to recording at Abbey Road with all the twists and turns of navigating the capricious music industry along the way. There are tales of band bust-ups and reconciliation, making the cover of the NME, getting chucked off Top Of The Pops, having their music censored (twice) and crashing and burning in America. At the forefront of the narrative, however, is the political stance of the band that ran at odds with the both the mainstream and far right in late 70s and early 80s Britain. Gang Of Four’s left-wing views often made them the target of The National Front, who’d crash their gigs looking for trouble – and the band made sure they got it. Bassist Dave Allen would wield his guitar at the NF thugs and the rest of the band frequently leapt in to fight them. With rather less punching involved, Gang Of Four also became one of the key voices in the Rock Against Racism movement in the north of England. The book tells stories of bust ups with the police, the racism they witnessed daily and how feminist bands like The Slits were an inspiration. “My ambition wasn’t to make money, but to change the world,” King says, reflecting on the legacy of the band. “Some of our songs are still horribly relevant but I wish they weren’t.” 

Standing up to fascism meant standing up for my friends

In the 1970s, I went to a demonstration in Leeds against the National Front while I was studying art in the city. The council had banned them from marching through Chapeltown in Leeds. My Afro-Caribbean, African and white friends all lived in Chapeltown of course and that’s where they wanted to march: it was intentionally provocative. Despite the ban, the NF managed to get a meeting inside a local hall and I don’t know whether or not they deceived the council, but they decided they wanted to walk down to the railway station together and of course what they were really doing was taking part in the march that was banned in the first place. I remember protesting and shouting ‘The National Front was The Nazi Front’.

The police were our enemy

Things got out of control at the protest: it was entirely on the National Front’s side. The moment it got out of control, the cops reacted. I was truncheoned down by a cop and whacked on the forehead: I dropped to the ground. My interactions with the police at that time were never positive. I have great sympathy with people who are trying to keep the law, but that wasn’t what they were doing. All the ones we encountered at that time were aggressive blokes who liked asserting their authority. The recent trouble in Türkiye really struck me because I was sort of like one of those people in the crowd too.

There were unlikely allies on the streets

The irony of the NF demonstration was that the NF eventually went into the middle of the railway station and met Leeds United fans coming off the train from London. This was in the middle of peak football hooliganism and Leeds United fans at that time were among the most notorious football crews. The Leeds fans just thought they were all cockneys and so attacked them, which I thought was a kind of poetic justice!

Fighting fascists is hard

It was extremely tense sometimes waiting for the next battle with fascists at gigs. There was often a lot of trouble and they’d come along just to cause bother. With Gang Of Four, The Mekons and Delta 5, we sort looked out for each other at that time: we were the first set of bands in Leeds who identified as being of the left. A very good friend of ours had life changing head injuries through the violence. They came into Leeds university at a gig and threw a fire extinguisher at his head: he nearly died and was affected for the rest of his life. It was a very dark period.

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Kathy Burke meets Joe Strummer in Little Crackers’ Better Than Christmas

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By Johnny Foreigner

I knew actress Kathy Burke mainly for her brilliant performance in the 1997 film Nil By Mouth, when she played a battered woman terrorized by her brutish husband (played with equal brilliance by actor Ray Winstone.) As comedienne, Bates also played “Magda” on  AbFab, and delivered a hilarious line in Sid and Nancy – “John got beaten up by fascists.” (wonderful!)

When I came across this great short biopic from 2010 about a young London schoolgirl (Ami Metcalf portraying a teenaged Kathy Burke) meeting her rock n’ roll hero Joe Strummer – it left me wanting to see the rest of the series. IMDB describes Little Crackers as “a series of short comedy-dramas with a Christmas theme, written by British artists recalling moments from their childhoods.”

Here’s how Kathy Burke the Writer sums up her Little Crackers “Better Than Christmas” mini biopic:

Kathy Burke turns 16 in two days and is about to leave school after sitting one final exam. Kathy’s passion is music and she dreams of being a writer for the NME where she’ll interview the likes of Paul Weller and Johnny Rotten. As Kath and her friend Mary celebrate their freedom, they’re stopped in their tracks by an almost unbelievable vision. There, in front of them, are The Clash. While an awestruck Kathy clutches her now-autographed NME, her hero, Joe Strummer, offers her some life-changing advice.