Who shot the Sheriff, Eric? It sure as hell wasn’t you!
Who shot the Sheriff, Eric? It sure as hell wasn’t you!
Rock Against Racism: When Music Led the Fight Against Intolerance
In the sweltering summer of 1976, as racial tensions simmered across Britain, an extraordinary grassroots movement was born in Forest Gate in Newham, that would change the cultural and political landscape of the country.
Rock Against Racism (RAR) – a powerful fusion of music, activism, and solidarity – began its journey at the Princess Alice pub on the corner of Romford and Woodgrange Roads. This landmark moment in our local history represents a pivotal chapter in the ongoing story of how communities can unite, through music, against intolerance and hatred.
As part of our current project, Sound Waves: Music in Newham, we’re delving into the borough’s vibrant musical heritage by exploring its diverse music venues – spaces that have shaped lives, nurtured creativity, and built meaningful community connections across the decades.
The Spark That Ignited a Movement
The mid-1970s were dark days for race relations in Britain. The National Front’s xenophobic rhetoric was gaining alarming traction, with the far-right party winning 40% of votes in some spring 1976 local elections. Their supporters marched provocatively through immigrant communities, spreading fear and division. That summer, 10-year-old Gurdip Singh Chaggar was murdered by a gang of white youths in Southall, with National Front leader John Kingsley Read callously remarking: “One down – a million to go.“
Against this troubling backdrop, an incident at a Birmingham concert in August 1976 became the catalyst for change. Eric Clapton, ironically a musician whose career was built on appropriating Black music, delivered a drunken, racist rant supporting Enoch Powell’s anti-immigration stance. He told the audience: “Enoch was right… I think we should send them all back” and claimed Britain was becoming “a black colony.”
When John Morris, one of the organisers of RAR discusses listening to the tirade, “It upset me listening to it, it really did, really upset me… he had to be stopped. And of course, he’s never really apologised for it”.
This hypocritical outburst – coming from an artist who had recently scored a hit with Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” – didn’t go unchallenged. Rock photographer and political activist Red Saunders, along with his friend Roger Huddle and others, penned a powerful letter of protest to the music press:
“Come on Eric… Own up. Half your music is black. You’re rock music’s biggest colonist… We want to organise a rank and file movement against the racist poison music… we urge support for Rock against Racism. P.S. Who shot the Sheriff, Eric? It sure as hell wasn’t you!”
The response was overwhelming.
“Within two weeks, we had about six hundred people, sending us letters saying, ‘I want to join. I want to Rock Against Racism’, mostly from Soul fans and also from mixed couples. So suddenly we said, ‘Oh, well, we’re gonna have to do it.’” said Roger Huddle in our interview with him.
Three months later, on 12 November 1976, Rock Against Racism held its first-ever gig at the Princess Alice pub in Forest Gate, featuring blues and folk singer Carol Grimes and her London Boogie Band.
The Princess Alice: Where It All Began
The choice of Forest Gate for RAR’s inaugural event was bold and deliberate. While other areas like Hackney or Camden might have seemed more obvious locations, the organisers wanted to take their message directly into areas where the National Front was attempting to build support. As Bob Light, one of the organisers, explained: “We were taking the fight to the belly of the Beast.”
The Princess Alice venue itself offered practical advantages – its function room was above the pub with its own entrance from the street, which made security easier to manage. The Irish Republican landlord was sympathetic to the cause, agreeing to host the event as long as there was no fighting inside his bars.
Security concerns were very real. The National Front considered East London their “patch,” and the British Movement held weekly meetings at another pub just hundreds of yards away. The organisers stationed lookouts at all four corners of the junction and had a reception committee waiting at the top of the stairs, complete with six pickaxe handles in a cricket bag and cans of pepper spray – just in case.
John describes the commaraderie:
“To go to something like that at the Princess Alice was really quite exhilarating, that you knew you were with people who were all right… There was the worry that [the National Front] would turn up to cause trouble, and of course, they wouldn’t dare, because obviously there’s more people against them than for them”.
In the end, about 200 people attended what Steve Cedar, one of the organisers, called “a great success.” The event was advertised using hand-printed posters produced on a stencilling machine in a living room in Plaistow, and the reggae band and Carol Grimes delivered a memorable performance despite the “rubbish lighting and rubbish sound system.”
From Newham Gig to National Movement
What began in that modest pub venue quickly grew into something much bigger. RAR established its own magazine, “Temporary Hoarding,” which articulated its vision: “We want Rebel music, street music, music that breaks down people’s fear of one another. Crisis music. Now music. Music that knows who the real enemy is. Rock Against Racism. Love Music Hate Racism.”
The movement secured support from the biggest names in the emerging punk culture – the Clash, Steel Pulse, Stiff Little Fingers, Sham 69, and the Tom Robinson Band. By creating multiracial line-ups and ending concerts with reggae bands like Aswad and Steel Pulse playing alongside punk bands, RAR demonstrated the power of cultural unity against racism.
As Misty in Roots‘ lead singer Poko reflected: “Music can help bring people together. When you saw a band like ours jamming with Tom Robinson or Elvis Costello, it showed that if you love music, we can all live together.”
Victoria Park, 30 April 1978, Unknown photographer, 1978
Victoria Park: The Culmination
The movement reached its pinnacle on 30 April 1978, when RAR and the Anti-Nazi League organised a massive carnival in Victoria Park. Over 80,000 people marched from Trafalgar Square to the East End to see X-Ray Spex, the Tom Robinson Band, and the Clash perform. The crowd was a vibrant mix – punks in leather and safety pins alongside vicars, hippies, and trade unionists.
For filmmaker Gurinder Chadha, who attended secretly against her parents’ wishes, it was transformative: “The whole of the park was jumping up and down to the Clash. It was an incredibly emotional moment because for the first time I felt that I was surrounded by people who were on my side. That was the first time I thought that something had changed in Britain forever.”
In the following local elections, the National Front failed to secure any seats, and their support dropped significantly. By the end of 1978, RAR had organised 300 local concerts and five carnivals nationwide. In the 1979 general election, the NF’s 303 candidates averaged just 0.6% of the overall vote.
A Lasting Legacy
Rock Against Racism’s influence extends far beyond its immediate political impact. Musically, it built a circuit of grassroots gigs and concerts where many bands developed their skills. The strategy of encouraging Black and white bands to perform together paved the way for the ska revival, 2-Tone, and multi-racial bands like the Beat and the Specials.
As Jerry Dammers, founder of the Specials, noted: “For me, it was no good being anti-racist if you didn’t involve Black people, so what the Specials tried to do was create something that was more integrated.”
RAR also demonstrated how popular culture could be harnessed for political causes, inspiring later movements like Red Wedge and, to some extent, Live Aid. But unlike these later initiatives, RAR was fundamentally a grassroots movement that encouraged active participation and challenged those in power directly.
The organisation formally disbanded in July 1981 with a final carnival in Leeds headlined by the Specials. Looking into the crowd, the Specials’ Neville Staple remarked: “It’s like a zebra crossing, black and white, black and white as far as you can see.”
Newham’s Unsung Heroes: The Asian Youth Movements
While Rock Against Racism fought intolerance through music, another grassroots movement was mobilising in Newham and across Britain: the Asian Youth Movements (AYMs). Formed in the late 1970s by the children of post-war migrants, the AYMs organised against racist violence, discriminatory policies, and police brutality—leaving a lasting mark on Newham’s history.
The 1970s–80s were a time of rising racism: violent attacks, discriminatory housing policies, and racist immigration laws targeted Asian communities. In Newham, the murder of Akhtar Ali Baig in 1980 sparked the formation of the Newham Youth Movement, which organised mass protests and adopted the rallying cry: “Don’t mourn—organise.”
Key Campaigns
- The Newham 8 Defence Campaign (1982): Eight Asian youths were arrested for protecting schoolchildren from racist attacks—only to discover their “assailants” were undercover police. The AYMs mobilised nationally, coining the slogan “Self-defence is no offence.”
- Solidarity Across Borders: From the Anwar Ditta campaign (fighting racist immigration laws) to the Bradford 12 trial (defending activists against conspiracy charges), the AYMs built alliances with trade unions, anti-fascists, and Black British movements.
Though the AYMs faded by the mid-1980s, their impact endured. As solicitor Gareth Pierce reflected:
“We owe to them that line of history that teaches us how to struggle for the truth.”
Today, their spirit lives on in Newham’s community organisers and anti-racist movements.
The Fight Continues
While the dark days of National Front marches may be history, the struggle against racism continues. In 2002, Rock Against Racism was revived under the name “Love Music Hate Racism,” directly inheriting RAR’s legacy. Their mission remains vital as new forms of intolerance emerge.
As Roger Huddle reflects:
“Racism ebbs and flows and must always be fought. We were part of the history of that fight” and draws the current parallel that what Enoch was doing by talking about repatriation, is what Trump’s doing now… I talk to older comrades who are either Asian or Black now, and they remember what it was like, and they tell you what it was like, how horrible it was, and a bit like what it must be like for the American immigrants now. I mean, they’re living in daily fear because of Trump’s promises. So, racism is such a poison
The story of Rock Against Racism showed that grassroots movements can make a profound difference. Red Saunders puts it best:
“The lesson from Rock Against Racism is that we can all intervene, make a difference and change things: nothing is inevitable.”
In today’s increasingly divided world, that message feels particularly relevant given recent heighten tensions that culminated in the riots in the summer of 2024.
Help Preserve Musical Heritage
Rendezvous Projects continues to explore and highlight important social and cultural histories like Rock Against Racism through our creative projects. We believe in the power of uncovering forgotten or underrepresented narratives to inspire people to value their place in our shared heritage.
With support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Sound Waves will feature a touring exhibition across Newham’s libraries, a publication, and a series of events.
How to share your memories
If you have memories, photographs, or memorabilia from Rock Against Racism or other significant cultural movements in East London, we’d love to hear from you. Your contributions help us preserve these vital histories for future generations.
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