#issue 219

Martin Bramah: "Mark just let fly with such venom from day one."

These were politically polarised times. [I]n August 1977 there were violent clashes as demonstrators tried to halt a National Front march through Lewisham, South London. Although appreciating the exposure Rock Against Racism gigs gave the group, Smith found the populist and sloganeering attitude of the organisers ideologically suspect. "I was disillusioned very quickly," he told Ian Penman in NME in August 1978. "I'd always equated left wing politics with revolution... What happens is before you go on they say, 'Will you hold this poster up?', and it's a picture of Belsen: 'DON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN'. I would say, 'We're a political band, that's what we sing about.' But they want you to make announcements between songs; they see you as entertainment. You might as well be singing Country & Western."