This Town | Review
The recent BBC drama This Town was widely applauded by reviewers, but Pat Stack found its portrayal of Irish republicanism too inaccurate, distorted and biased to swallow.
Review | Shake the City – Experiments in Space and Time, Music and Crisis
Kate Bradley reviews Shake the City by Alexander Billet, a well-written and thought-provoking book on the role of music in making political change.
Music of the streets, music of rebellion
The 1920s saw the emergence of new kinds of music around the world, sometimes with links to anti-colonial movements.
The Fairplay Committee
Mitch Mitchell recounts the legacy of the Fairplay Committee, a group aiming to improve the conditions of black workers in the music industry.
Alan Freed: Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll
Alan Freed, one of the earliest promoters of rock ‘n’ roll, was hated by the US establishment for helping to break segregation in the music industry.
Our key workers keep us strong
A May Day tribute to the key workers who are keeping us going in the face of the coronavirus crisis, and to remember those who have died.
Music of the people: Country & Western
Mitch Mitchell (‘the Fenland Kid’) is back with another people’s music playlist. This time he’s here with a brief history of Country and Western.
Music of the people: The Blues
Mitch Mitchell is back with another people’s music playlist. This time he’s here with a brief history of The Blues
Music of the people: Skiffle
Mitch Mitchell is back with another people’s music playlist. This time he’s introducing Skiffle.
Music of the people: Doo Wop
Mitch Mitchell introduces a new series of playlists of ‘music of the people’. He starts this week with Doo Wop.
Review: Stolen Moments
Mark Winter welcomes a new exhibition celebrating Namibia’s unsung musical heroes, and remembers the time when the artist Jackson Kaujewa came to stay with his family.
Move On Up. Curtis Mayfield – Music and message
Emerging from the civil rights movement in the USA, Curtis Mayfield is one of the best exponents of radical soul music and his music lives on, as remembered by John Wheeler.
LGBT History in 21 pieces of music
For LGBT History Month, Colin Wilson presents a history of queer music in 21 tracks.
How we beat them last time
How can anti-fascists find a cultural politics to fit the current moment? David Renton speaks to Colin Revolting about Rock Against Racism, the Anti Nazi League and his new book, Never Again.
A Marxist theory of music: it’s all in the groove
Kate Bradley interview Mark Abel, author of Groove: An Aesthetic of Measured Time
Rock Against Racism: an interview with Ruth Gregory
Ruth Gregory, one of the organisers of the 100,000-strong Rock Against Racism carnival of 1978, talks to rs21 about anti-racist organising from then to now.
Rock Against Racism: forty years on
The 1978 Rock Against Racism carnival rallied 100,000 young people against the advancing far right. What were they fighting – and why was this particular fightback so very powerful?
Music as a force for change: an interview with Redskins’ Martin Hewes
An interview with Martin Hewes of the Redskins, to some the true inheritors of the Clash’s crown as the radical rockers
Rocking Against Racism and other irrational ideologies
The first Rock Against Racism carnival took place forty years ago, on April 30 1978.
Music helps us struggle for a better world
Amy Downham is inspired by a recent book about music and politics. I met Dave Randall a few years ago on an antiracism march. I had recently joined rs21 in search of reassurance that I wasn’t alone in the way I thought and felt about the world. We talked and agreed about the importance of sharing political thoughts with like-minded […]
Kefaya – sounds of a new world
Lois C reviews a musical project that captures the energy and excitement of the latest wave of global resistance. For most readers of this review the word “kefaya” might conjure up images of a pre-Arab Spring Egypt still in the grips of Mubarak’s dictatorship. Kefaya, the Arabic word “enough”, became the rallying call for a grassroots […]
Keep On Keeping On! – the Redskins and me (part 2)
In the second part of his recollections on the Redskins, Colin Revolting recalls being a revolutionary during the miners’ strike and its aftermath during the Redskins’ growing popularity, including TV appearances, being attacked by fascists and touring against apartheid with their radical rock and soul music. (To read the first part of Colin’s reflections, click […]
Take no heroes – only inspiration: the Redskins and me
Colin Revolting recalls how he became a revolutionary and the role in the process played by the music of the Redskins, a band who gained a notable amount of popularity in the 1980s for their blistering, punked-up version of unabashedly radical soul music. If you type ‘Neither Washington nor Moscow’ into a search engine the […]
Video: Redskins – A flame that can’t be dimmed
This ten minute film pays tribute to the revolutionary rock and soul band Redskins.
The Political Power of Music: in conversation with Dave Randall
Colin Revolting speaks to musician and activist Dave Randall about his experience of ‘mixing pop and politics’ and the journey which led him to write Sound System – The Political Power of Music. Interview transcribed by William Cleary. What was the journey that led you to write Sound System? I felt, when I was a young musician, that […]
It’s up to us to change this Town called Malice: the politics of Paul Weller, The Jam and The Style Council
John Wheeler looks back at The Jam, who became arguably the most popular and political band to emerge from the punk explosion of 1977. “We’ll all be voting Conservative at the next election.” Fanzine interview, 1977 “Imagine, if tomorrow the workers went on strike. Not just British Leyland but the whole world. Who would earn […]
Stressed out: Twenty One Pilots and teenage lives today
Teenager Tazmin Aldis looks at the important issues behind Twenty One Pilots’ songs which have been watched a billion of times on Youtube. Twenty One Pilots are the latest young American male duo to burst onto the music scene. Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun are perhaps unlikely suspects on today’s music charts which are typically flooded with the […]
Sonic boom: Kefaya’s Radio International
Neil Rogall finds Kefaya’s debut album ‘Radio International a fantastic listen When fusion albums work they can be astonishing. The intersections, the borderlands, the clashes, the moments of meeting between cultures, genres, city and country can produce the most sublime music. But so often they fail. When the artists are just tinkering with other sounds, […]
Opening up a debate on black America – Beyoncé’s Lemonade
Monique Alicia Bell considers her favourite album of 2016 – Lemonade from Beyoncé I have been a Beyoncé fan since the days of Destiny’s Child, expressing my teenage moods by blasting ‘Emotions’ on repeat. As I watched women freaking out in excitement over this year’s visual album Lemonade, I decided I had to dedicate one full […]