Love Music Hate Racism

 

Thirty years ago this week, the Clash, the Tom Robinson Band and X-Ray Spex played a free Rock Against Racism concert to 80,000 people in Victoria Park, east London. On Sunday, the Love Music Hate Racism festival at the same venue revisited the idea as a reaction to the local rise in popularity of the British National Party, who, a few miles down the road, hold 12 seats on Dagenham and Barking council. The loss of a sponsor late last week meant the event was nearly pulled until Morrissey donated £75,000 at the last minute.

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The crowd is a mix of grizzled veterans of 1978 and eager local kids who are simply up for a day of free music. There is something for both constituencies. Early on, Dennis Bovell's lovers' rock drifts lazily across the field for survivors of the punk-reggae 1970s, while the Thirst are so shaped by the Libertines that you expect them to don pork pie hats and start mumbling about Albion. In the dance tent, Mistajam's mash-up has 500 teens bouncing and yelling: "Fuck the BNP!"

It is hard to be enthused by the View's scrag-end indie rock in the teeming rain. The skies brighten for Hard-Fi, although their sharp-edged performance of Living for the Weekend can't obscure the fact that they are essentially a more worthy take on the Stereophonics. Jay Sean's R&B-lite and Roll Deep's rap-ragga fusion lift the mood: the latter's political interjections ("Fuck da racist shit") are rudimentary but effective.

With Pete Doherty unavoidably detained elsewhere, bassist Drew McConnell turns Babyshambles' cancelled set into an impromptu jam session. Victoria Park's younger visitors applaud the appearances of members of Reverend and the Makers and the Guillemots, while older patrons appreciate X-Ray Spex's Poly Styrene revisiting Oh Bondage! Up Yours! and (arguably less so) Sham 69's Jimmy Pursey bawling the Clash's White Riot.

The Good, the Bad and the Queen are somewhat downbeat headliners, and the baleful Kingdom of Doom sounds as grey as the skies. However, ex-Clash man Paul Simonon's dub-reggae-flecked basslines and Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen's afrobeat rhythms are appropriately multicultural contributions.

Finally, Jerry Dammers leads an all-star version of the Specials' Ghost Town and dedicates the day to Stephen Lawrence, Anthony Walker and all victims of racist murders. The message is clear: much has been achieved, but there is still much to do.

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