Why Music Needs to Get Political Again

By Billy Bragg
How ironic that The Clash should be on the cover of the NME in the week that London was burning, that their faces should be staring out from the shelves as newsagents were ransacked and robbed by looters intent on anarchy in the UK. Touching too, that the picture should be from very early in their career - Joe with curly blond hair - for The Clash were formed in the wake of a London riot: the disturbances that broke out at the end of the Notting Hill Carnival of 1976.

At the time, the press reported it as the mindless violence of black youth intent on causing trouble; now we look back and recognise that it was the stirrings of what became our multicultural society - the moment when the first generation of black Britons declared that these streets belonged to them too.

The Notting Hill Riots of 35 years ago created a genuine 'What The Fuck?' moment - the first in Britain since the violent clashes between mods and rockers in the early 60s. While west London burned, the rest of society recoiled in terror at the anger they saw manifested on the streets of England. In the aftermath, severe jail sentences were handed down and police patrols stepped up in areas where there was a large immigrant population. Sound familiar?

But something else happened too - in the months that followed, bands appeared that sought to make sense of what went down on that hot August night. Aswad, Steel Pulse and Misty in Roots were among the reggae bands that stepped forward to speak for the black community.   

The power of music

Charlotte now composes her own music

A teenage girl sits in a dimly-lit room wearing sunglasses playing the prelude to Bach's cello suite. A clip of this performance can be found on the internet.

There is nothing remarkable about this until you learn that she is playing every crotchet and quaver using only the slightest movements of her head and thumbs.

At the age of 11, Charlotte White suffered a blow to the head which caused her to lose all movement in her body.

She spent five years in and out of hospital and eventually went into a period of rehabilitation, regaining movement in her head and then gradually her fingers.

'Patronising' therapies

But she became very withdrawn: "All I was expected to do was get physically stronger, which wasn't happening, so that was quite depressing. I only saw people who were meant to make my life better but it never seemed to happen."

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteMusic inspired me in the belief that I could achieve anything”

End QuoteCharlotte WhiteStudent At 16, Charlotte began attending St Rose's School in Stroud and initially did not respond well to some of the activities on offer.

She said: "Music therapy is somebody sitting in front of you banging a drum or playing a guitar, and you're meant to tell them all your worries about life. It's incredibly patronising and very boring."

Then she was introduced to the Bristol-based Drake Music project, an organisation that uses technology to help people with disabilities participate in music.

There she starting working with Doug Bott and learned how to use very small head movements to break a magnetic beam, which triggers the notes.

Using thumb switches, she learned to control the configuration of notes available, much like a guitarist changes chord shapes.

Bott said Charlotte stood out from the beginning: "She was someone who was interested in classical music, which not many of the young people I was working with at the time were, somebody who was interested in working on her own and in her own way."

Eventually Charlotte took part in a concert at school.

She practised extremely hard beforehand.

"I wanted to achieve at it because it made people see me as a person, rather than as a disabled person they made presumptions about."

Striving for recognition

When Drake Music recorded her performing a Bach cello suite and posted it on the internet, it generated a lot of interest across the musical community, challenging the assumptions about what was possible using assistive technology.