Simon Frith and John Street

28 June 1986 Marxism Today ARTAlliances between pop anYd politics ar e noMUSIt new. The formation of Red C Wedge, however, is distinctive in its close identification with the Labour party. Simon Frith and John Street THERE IS a long-established argument from the start. The party put up the initial that pop and organised politics have little money for a tour and provided MPs to talk Pin common, and that each suffers by being to the audience in the foyer; Billy Bragg linked. The most notorious moment of the brought together the performers. Woodstock Festival, ultimate celebration Their motives for joining varied. Even of 1960s counter-culture, was when Pete now, Red Wedge seems to have no agreed Townshend of The Who knocked Abbey political line except anti-Thatcherism and Hoffman off stage as he tried to make a vaguely expressed support for the Labour political speech, and even now, after Live party and for the need to involve young Aid has revealed the practical possibilities people in politics. The Redskins, the of an organised rock campaign, media SWP's house band and supporters of many cynics like Julie Burchill suggest that left benefits, refused to be involved, on the 'there's no safer way to castrate (sic) a grounds that Red Wedge was simply political view than to express it to a geared to the support of a 'right wing' throbbing back-beat'. party leadership. Black musician Junior But such scepticism is matched by the Giscombe ceded that while Labour was the National Front, and while the SWP was increasingly dogged claims of those who best of the main political groups, 'if you instrumental in sustaining it, RAR was not insist on uniting pop and politics, who hear asked me to get up on a stage and recruit used as a way of mobilising support for the in that same back-beat the sound of a for them, I would say no, because I still SWP. The successful emphasis was on democratic populism. don't believe in a lot of the things that the local initiatives and grassroots organisation Are they right? The best way to answer Labour party are doing, especially for (something the highly centralised Red the question is to examine Red Wedge, the black kids'. He, like the rest of the Red Wedge should note). organisation of entertainers for the Labour Wedge touring troupe, seemed to be there What really distinguishes Red Wedge party. In both its claims and its activities to change the party as much as to support it from RAR, though, and what makes it Red Wedge focuses the issues. Is pop just a - Paul Weller's stage rhetoric, in particu- such an important development, is the way distraction from the real struggle? Can lar, had a distinctly militant flavour: 'we're it brings political judgements into play. politicians learn anything from rock stars? going to take the party back into our Musicians are not simply supporting a hands!' single cause, they are involved in linking Roots and branches Involvement with a particular party is issues into a political programme. They are Red Wedge certainly seems to symbolise a Red Wedge's most distinctive feature. part of a process in which alliances are new attitude among pop musicians to There are many precedents for the pop- being forged as part of an electoral political parties. In 1974, the Musicians political alliance, most obviously Rock strategy. Union tried to recruit rock stars to These changes are a result of a number Labour's electoral cause. They got two of different musical and political factors. replies: Alan Price said he would help; Ray with Red Wedge the Red Wedge traded on the well-established Davies of the Kinks (and now Red Wedge) musicians and the politicians tradition within popular music for benefit said he was voting Tory. The attempt to are involved in messy performances and, in particular, many of recruit musicians through their union questions of policy and Red Wedge's stars had given such support failed. In comparison, Red Wedge (laun- during the miners' strike, which had ched at the end of last year) is a remarkable strategy brought them into direct contact with the success. This time the musicians (who organised labour movement. Their in- cover the pop world from Sade to The Against Racism in the late 1970s, which volvement led to their increasing politi- Smiths) were persuaded to join by the drew on the power and commitment of cisation, not just in terms of the content of party, not the union, and the impresario punk and reggae in its attempt to build a their songs, but also in terms of their was not a union official but a rock star, political movement around a concert plat- actions, their understanding that support- Billy Bragg. With Red Wedge, the party form. The point of RAR, though, was not ing Labour (or, at least, opposing Thatch- and musicians have worked together to change a party but to destroy one, the er) meant more than cash donations. RED WEDGE: their concerts were intended to unite audiences in a common cause. Paul Welter, Jimmy From rebellion to responsibility questions about musicians' responsibili- Sommerville, Sarah-Jane Morris, Billy Bragg and Junior (above) are all well-known musicians with a There is something touching about the ties, and it was Bob Geldof s achievement particular stage approach. Keith Vaz(left)Labour's picture of pop stars like Billy Bragg, Paul to ask these questions in the most pertinent prospective parliamentary candidate/or Leicester is joined by musicians in his campaign. Billy Bragg Weller and Jerry Dammers attending end- possible way, to counterpose pop's global (below): he persuaded the performers to join Red less committee meetings to discuss the success (Phil Collins's records to be heard Wedge. nuts and bolts of Labour party arts policy in every African capital) to the appalling or Anti-Apartheid's regional campaign. realities of the world economy. It's a picture in striking contrast to rock's The paradox of Live Aid was that while traditional imagery of leather-clad rebel- in the name of 'humanity' it seemed to lion and drugged bohemia and it is temp- depoliticise famine, in the same terms, in ting to explain it by reference to the the name of 'humanity', it politicised mass personalities involved - Bragg, Weller and music. Red Wedge can be seen as an effect Dammers are unusual stars. But Red of this new-found sense of responsibility in Wedge has the active support of perfor- Britain. It is seen as a way of organising mers with no activist history, and it is political activity, not just concerts, but important to understand the material fac- workshops for would-be musicians and tors lying behind the emergence of a video-makers, and local groups to co- general feeling of 'responsibility' among ordinate cultural activities and youth sup- musicians. This feeling was displayed most dramatically in the Live Aid concerts but is a continuing presence in both Britain 'the Labour party is the fun and the USA (where Live Aid was suc- party, the good time party, ceeded by Farm Aid and Artists Against come and enjoy yourselves!' The changes in musicians' attitudes in Apartheid's 'Sun City'). the last few years are paralleled by wider The source of pop stars' new-found shifts in cultural politics. 'Youth' has moralism lies, paradoxically, in the record port for Labour. Whether such plans work become an increasingly salient political industry's success in absorbing rock's (and at present there is little happening at constituency, both as a potential electorate youthful rebellion, in placing pop stars at local level to justify the rhetoric) and and as the specific victim of government the centre of a world-wide leisure industry. whether full-time musicians can really be policies, while the 60s generation of activ- The technological developments of the last effective political organisers is another ists has now reached an influential place in decade - the spread of cassette recording, matter, but the point is that there is a left organisations. The latter take for the increasingly important cross-national substantive group of performers who be- granted the political importance of both presence of satellite broadcasting and cable lieve they have a responsibility to try. music and youth; they are attuned to ideas tv - have made Anglo-American musicians There's a last point to be made about of cultural engagement, at odds with the a more significant source of multinational this. The 'power' of musicians to influence forms and concerns of traditional political profit than ever before. The idea that rock their fans has not just attracted political activity. The result of all these develop- is some sort of 'underground' entertain- interest from the Left. While Bob Geldof ments is that musicians are having to face ment is now clearly ridiculous. was mobilising this power to a noble end in new sorts of political questions, while Rock's incorporation into consumerism Britain, the Parents Music Resource Cen- politicians wrestle with new sorts of cultu- - from counter-culture and sub-culture to tre was seeking to curtail it in the USA. ral questions, as they work together to multi-media sales campaign - hasn't, then, The PMRC's moral crusade against rock is write policies on tape levies or pirate radio, diminished its political significance (as reminiscent of responses to rock'n'roll in or independent labels or community suggested by people who denounce musi- the 1950s. These culminated in the payola music. cians for 'selling out') but raised new hearings, the 'clean-up' of pop radio.

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