Caroline Coon
11 3/4 x 16 1/2 ins
BLACK AND WHITE UNITE - Paul Simonon, Selwyn ‘Andy’ Brown (Steel Pulse), Glen Matlock (ex-Sex Pistols/The Rich Kids) Mick Jones (The Clash) and Mykaell Riley (Steel Pulse) demonstrate outside leader of the neo-fascist National Front leader’s head-quarters on Connaught Road, Teddington. Passing local residents look on. March 1978.
The Sounds editorial team, that included editor Allan Lewis, Jon Savage and features editor Vivien Goldman, decided that it was unconscionable to be a rock and roll magazine and allow racism. They devoted a whole issue of the magazine to the theme of “Racism and Your Music” with a cover of all the musicians that in my interview with Martin Webster, the National Front’s Activities Organiser, had wanted deported. At one point in my Webster interview (before I organised the BLACK AND WHITE UNITE photograph) I said: “If your policies are taken to their logical conclusion, 90 per cent of the rock bands in this country will have to be repatriated to various parts of the world.” “Yes, that’s right” he replied, “And there they can amuse their own people.”