KING MOB ECHO FROM 1780 GORDON RIOTS TO SITUATIONISTS SEX PISTOLS AND BEYOND BY TOM VAGUE INCOMPLETE WORKS OF KING MOB WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN TWO VOLUMES DARK STAR LONDON ·- - � --- Printed by Polestar AUP Aberdeen Limited, Rareness Rd., Altens Industrial Estate, Aberdeen AB12 3LE § 11JJJDJJDILIEJMIIENf1r 1f(Q) KIINCGr JMI(Q)IB3 JECCIHI(Q) ENGLISH SECTION OF THE SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL IF([J)IF ffiIE V ([J) IL lUilII ([J) W §IFIEIEIIJ) IHIII§il([J) ffiY ADDITIONAL RESEARCH BY DEREK HARRIS AND MALCOLM HOPKINS Illustrations: 'The Riots in Moorfields' (cover), 'The London Riots', 'at Langdale's' by 'Phiz' Hablot K. Browne, Horwood's 1792-9 'Plan of London', 'The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle', 'Oliver Twist Manifesto' by Malcolm McLaren. Vagrants and historical shout outs: Sandra Belgrave, Stewart Home, Mark Jackson, Mark Saunders, Joe D. Stevens at NDTC, Boz & Phiz, J. Paul de Castro, Blue Bredren, Cockney Visionaries, Dempsey, Boss Goodman, Lord George Gordon, Chris Gray, Jonathon Green, Jefferson Hack, Christopher Hibbert, Hoppy, Ian Gilmour, Ish, Dzifa & Simone at The Grape, Barry Jennings, Joe Jones, Shaun Kerr, Layla, Lucas, Malcolm McLaren, John Mead, Simon Morrissey, Don Nicholson-Smith, Michel Prigent (pre-publicity), Charlie Radcliffe, Jamie Reid, George Robertson & Melinda Mash, Dragan Rad, George Rude, Naveen Saleh, Jon Savage, Valerie Solanas, Carolyn Starren & co at Kensington Library, Mark Stewart, Toko, Alex Trocchi, Fred & Judy Vermorel, Warren, Dr. Watson, Viv Westwood, Jack Wilkes, Dave & Stuart Wise Soundtrack: 'It's a London Thing' Scott Garcia, 'Going Mobile' The Who, 'Living for the City' Stevie Wonder, 'Boston Tea Party' Alex Harvey, 'Catholic Day' Adam and the Ants, 'Do the Strand' Roxy Music', 'Rev. Black Grape', 'Drunk on the Pope's Blood' Birthday Party, 'Firestarter' Prodigy, 'Police and Thieves' Junior Murvin, 'Babylon's Burning' Ruts, reggae 'Marseillaise' Serge Gainsbourg, 'Ghetto Superstar' Refugee Camp All-stars, 'Something in the Air' Thunderclap Newman, 'Dancing in the Street' Martha and the Vandellas, 'Heatwave' The Who, 'Paris' Malcolm McLaren, 'We are all Prostitutes' The Pop Group, 'Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)' Jay-Z, 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' The Verve, 'Under the Bridge', 'Pure Shores' All Saints 'When tumult lately burst his prison door, And set plebeian thousands in a roar, When he usurp'd authority's just place, And dared to look his master in the face; When the rude rabble's watchword was - destroy, And blazing London seem'd a second Troy.' William Cowper 'Table Talk' 1781 'I wander thro each dirty street, Near where the dirty Thames does flow, And in every face I meet, Marks of weakness marks of woe, In every cry of every man, In every voice of every child, In every voice in every ban, The german forged links I hear, But most the chimney sweepers cry, Blackens oer the churches walls, And the hapless soldiers sigh, Runs in blood down palace walls.' William Blake 'London' 1792 'Cramp and paralize them and those who worship Babylon and deal in iniquity... Chant down Babylon kingdom, Bum Down Vatican City, Yeah.' Dillinger 'Buckingham Palace' 'I don't want a holiday in the sun, I wanna go to the new Belsen, Now I wanna see some history.' Sex Pistols 'Holidays in the Sun' 1977 VAGUE DE CHALEUR REAL IS STREETGANG WITH AN ANALYSIS GERONIMO CELL BA/DSS CYBER-PROTESTANT JOURNAL OF DIS-INFORMATION GETTING IT STRAIGHT IN NOTTING HILL GATE lfUNG MOR lECJHlO JPJR.OJJJECT: LJEAVJING TlHllE Wili CJENTUJR.Y LONDON PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY ASSOCIATION WEST LONDON SECTION FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT TO UNEMPLOYMENT IN NORTH KENSINGTON VAGUE 32 • I • Lord George Gordon President of the Protestant Association I • 'The Gordon Riots made a profound impression on contemporaries. They took place at a time of acute political crisis, at the most dangerous moment of the American war, when the country, after numerous defeats and counter-alliances, found itself virtually isolated. At their height, on the night of June 7 1780, London appeared to onlookers to be a sea of flames. 'I remember', wrote Horace Walpole on the 8th, 'the Excise and Gin Act and the rebels at Derby and Wilkes' interlude and the French at Plymouth, or I should have a very bad memory; but I never till last night saw London and Southwark in flames!' Sebastien Mercier, in his 'Tableau de Paris', wrote 9 years before the attack on the Bastille that such 'terrors and alarms' as were spread by Lord George Gordon in London would be inconceivable in a city as well-policed as Paris .. .' George Rude, 'The Gordon Riots' (1955); 'Paris and London in the 18th Century: Studies in Pop Protest' After the Protestant Duke of Monmouth's west country rebellion is crushed by Judge Jeffreys' Bloody Assizes, James ll's attempted Catholic revival results in the 'Glorious i- (;f-:J:J- - Revolution', and the Bill of Rights. In the Interregnum, between James running away and the arrival of William of Orange and Mary, London erupts in 'No Popery' riots. The apprentice mob (as first named from the Latin mobile vulgus) pull down Catholic chapels and houses, James ll's Catholic literature is burnt, and Judge Jeffreys is committed to the To wer (at his own request). During the reign of Queen Anne, the Church and Tory mob destroy Dissenting chapels in 'God Bless the Queen and Dr. Sacheverell' riots; stirred up by To ry parsons, at the -i -Jj- -(I-J time of Whig I Dissenting I Low-Church versus To ry I High-Church trial. 1111•1111111111111 After the unpopular accession of the first Hanoverian, George I, the arrest of To ry leader, Robert Harley (for Jacobite intriguing) occasions further anti-Whig riots. With the i- -r•- -1e1- To ries more in tune with pop culture, Sir Robert Walpole's Whigs pass the Riot Act (making it a capital offense for a mob, of more than 12, not to disperse within an hour of a magistrate reading the proclamation, 'in the King's name'). At the time of 'the '15' Jacobite rebellion, of the 'Old Pretender' (James ll's son James Stuart), the Duke of Newcastle payrolls Whig 'Mugites' in election riots versus the To ry 'Jacks' - in which the Riot Act is only enacted on the latter. In the reign of George II, Walpole's Excise and Gin Acts are accompanied by another series of riots. The Excise Act is swiftly withdrawn following a siege of Parliament, then i- -iC---JcJ there's more election and turnpike riots (with some cross-dressing) around the country. J As Lord Hervey says, 'the people showed a licentious, riotous, seditious, and almost un­ governable spirit.' After west country food riots, there's anti-Irish cheap labour riots in - -iC-I--;J London. Irish pubs and houses are pulled down in Shoreditch, Spitalfields, and iWh Jitechapel, for 'King George and No Papery'. Another factor is the passing of the Gin Act, and Jacobite agents are said to exploit the situation in the 'mobbish part of town'. The Gin Act comes in, without much resistance from 'No Gin No King' mobs, and duly causes an increase in gin consumption. It takes 2 more acts and Hogarth's 'pictorial propaganda' to make any difference. Then Edinburgh has the Porteous riots, over the hanging of a popular smuggler. Captain Porteous orders his men to fire into the hanging crowd, killing several. For which he becomes subject to lynch-mob justice. A combination of the popular masses, the City, and William Pitt, force Walpole into war with Spain, and out of office. In the unillustrious war, Admiral Vernon takes Portobelo in i1-11111 -...iC1- 11111PJ-�I Panama, and the Road is duly named - in To ry celebration of the end of Walpole. J The Jacobites take advantage of the War of the Austrian Succession, to launch the 'Young Pretender' Bonnie Prince Charlie rebellion. In which they take Edinburgh and i- -J�- -le1- get as far as Derby, before retreating to the Highlands, to be massacred at Culloden. Lord George Gordon is born in Upper Grosvenor Street, off Park Lane, the 6th off-spring . • of the recently departed, Cosmo George, 3rd Duke of Gordon. 'They were, and are, all i '.}• ....:e I mad,' says Horace Walpole of the Gordon family. George's mother, the outrageous Lady Catherine, Duchess of Gordon, discovers Robert Burns and gets the young George to shoot arrows at the King of Poland - with whom she's infatuated - before re-marrying the American Major, Staats Long Morris. Clan Gordon are out in the '45, though not under Cosmo, and are involved in various Scots plots and feuds, down through the centuries (usually on the Catholic Church and King side). Ever since the 14th century Sir Adam, Lord of Gordon, takes ('It is not for glory, riches or honours that we fight, it is for liberty alone') Declaration of Arbroath to Rome, to get the Pope to recognise Robert The Bruce. I • The beginning of the reign of George Ill, sees the King's friend, John Stuart, Earl of Bute, at the helm as First Minister, and Pitt the Elder enthusiastically pursuing the 7 i- l(;j- -- -I Years War with France. When the French form a pact with Spain, Pitt urges Parliament to declare war on them too, but gets vetoed by Bute. 'The First Great Commoner' Pitt resigns to mob acclaim, and Bute is pelted with mud. In the City, William Beckford (the slave trader father of the Gothic novelist) calls for a 'more equal representation of the people in Parliament.' Thus the To ries revive 17th century popular protest movement ideas, of 'freeman's suffrage' and the 'common rights of man', first propagated by the Levellers, Diggers, Commonwealth and 5th Monarchy Men.