Imagine you work for Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) or Unite. On Sunday June 6th you are supposed to be putting on an anti-racism festival in Finsbury Park, followed by an evening gig by the Libertines. However you have a few problems. A week and a half before the festival the police pull the plug. They won’t grant a licence unless you can put up a sheet steel fence around the entire area of the festival. They feel that 100 security and 300 stewards is not enough to guarantee the day goes smoothly. The Libertines gig has also been cancelled. They have backed out due to the ongoing personal problems of one of their members. Your main problem, though, is the fact that the BNP is currently polling 4-6% of the vote in London and they only need 5% for seats on the GLA. In the north of the country they are polling 12-16%, a figure high enough to get them MEPs. The point of the festival and gig was supposed to be to highlight this situation, and hopefully stop it, by encouraging people to vote. So what do you do? Under the circumstances most people would panic.

However the people behind Sunday's proposed events do not panic. They hire a flat bed lorry, find some willing bands and play a series of impromptu shows around London. Having played short sets in Finsbury Park, Wood Green and Camden Town featuring The Fades, Art Brut and Gravy Rambles (a supergroup made up of members of The Others and The Cribs) the lorry arrives in Brixton at around 5.30. There are people leafleting on behalf of Unite, including members of Art Brut and The Fades, and a reggae sound system on the truck. A good vibe is created although the bands do not play here as there is not a large enough crowd. To be fair this could be because the truck is running over an hour late.

At 7 the entourage moves off in the general direction of Old Street, where they park up outside the Trueman Brewery, before being moved on by a TV Crew, who are filming nobby Chef Gordon Ramsay’s Hells Kitchen. Swiftly relocated outside 93 Feet East the last show of the day commences.

First up are Million Dan and Navigator featuring Demolition Man. All three of these guys have been in seminal London hip-hop collectives over the past decade and the three songs they play tonight illustrate why. Their rhymes are tight and flow well over the complex beats they produce. They are let down tonight by a PA that could be better but they really entertain the sizable crowd and get their message across loudly.

Next up are Gravy Rambles a ‘supergroup’ who feature members of The Others and The Cribs amongst their ranks. They have been hastily put together and it is more than a little coincidental that their name bears a passing resemblance to a certain side project for a certain Libertine. They play for about half an hour, their semi-acoustic set really getting the audience going. At points they lose backing vocals but it is irrelevant as everyone is having a good time.

Lastly Art Brut, the band who tout themselves as working towards world peace. Taking to the stage at just gone 9, the point after which they could be arrested for causing a public disturbance they rip through a 20 minute set. Again the sound is bad and they have no backing vocals, which are needed as they carry most of the tune. To the people watching though this doesn’t matter, the cause is more important.

By half 9 it is all over, with only the clearing up left to do. The bands had a great day and they all kept saying it was fantastic to do this kind of impromptu show. The organisers were happy with the turn out and that anything had happened at all under the circumstances. It was fun, it had a positive message. What a great way to spend a Sunday in the sun.

Review by Foxy

www.lmhr.org.uk