No-one takes the National Front (NF) seriously these days. They are estimated to have no more than 400 active members and, as Hope not Hate comments:
"Few of the NF’s branches have ready access to party materials and the party is often seen as a drinking club".
That is welcome news, but things were not always like this. Back in the 1970s, the NF were seen as an approaching menace, growing in number, influence and credibility by holding provocative street marches, rowdy public meetings and recruiting soccer hooligans. At times, and especially in the violent street confrontations that took place, it was possible to believe we lived in Weimar Britain, facing a neo-Nazi takeover. I was in the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP) at the time, largely because they were - to their credit - spearheading the campaign against the NF, widening the base of the campaign by founding the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) and Rock Against Racism (RAR). Some pundits will have it that Mrs Thatcher caused the NF's demise by her restrictions on immigration. Anyone, like me, who took part in any of the many events organised all over Britain by ANL and RAR at that time, finds that hard to swallow. In 1978, they held a joint rally and music festival in Victoria Park, Hackney, which starred anti-fascist bands such as The Clash, The Tom Robinson Band and Sham 69. I was there, and well remember the exhilaration of the event. I cannot bring myself to believe that all the activism of those times had no effect. Or perhaps I'm just being sentimental?
RAR began because of the declarations of support for Fascism and racism by three leading musicians. One of these musicians was Eric Clapton, who, drunk on stage in Birmingham, August 1976, praised Enoch Powell and told the audience to "get the coons out of Britain". A number of times during the concert, Clapton shouted "Keep Britain White!" - an NF slogan. (Clapton has never lost his admiration for Powell). Another singer listed by RAR was Rod Stewart, and the third - of interest here - was David Bowie. At the time, there was a rumour that one of these three was secretly financing the NF, but this was never proven.
David Bowie went further to the Right in his statements. The eulogies written about him since his recent death (January 10) praise him for many things. His individualism, his ambivalent sexuality and flouting of the dull conventions of 60s and 70s Britain, would appear to make him, as Rod Liddle has said in "The Spectator":
"... a sort of combination of Harvey Milk and Peter Tatchell rolled into one: a fearless fighter for LGBT rights, pushing back the barriers of conservative morality and heralding, almost single-handedly, a brave new world of equality for gays, transgendered persons, bisexuals, etc."
It comes a shock to learn that Bowie:
1. In 1975, said that Britain needed a good dose of fascism.
2. Again at that time, he said: ‘I believe very strongly in fascism… Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars."
3. On the moral decay he believed he saw in Britain at that time: ‘You’ve got to have an extreme right-wing front come up and sweep everything off its feet and tidy everything up."
There were unconfirmed rumours that he had been caught with Nazi literature in his luggage by Swedish customs. There were also reports that he had been photographed giving Nazi salutes in one of his personas - the Great White Duke. As the Jewish Chronicle says:
"As the Duke, Bowie was known to make pro-fascist comments, praising nationalism and Hitler in interviews. He subsequently blamed heavy drug use for his behaviour."
He also blamed his persona for having led him into making extremist statements. This is a remarkable thing to say, rather like Steve Coogan blaming Alan Partridge for his (Coogan's) getting a job as a TV presenter.
And Bowie survived this storm - why? Some artists would have been finished by such events, but he bounced back. One reason could be that no-one really believed Bowie to mean what he was saying. And he didn't - he went on to marry an African woman and father a mixed race child, on whom he doted. He was a great supporter of Live Aid and a huge admirer of black funk and soul music. He recently teamed up with P Diddy to re-record "This is not America". These are not the actions of a hard line national socialist, but Bowie should have counted himself lucky to have survived as a performer.
If all this is relevant, it shows the power of Bowie to change his personas, his musical styles, his lyric content and infuse them all with enduring passion. His early tracks still sound as fresh and original as they did when he first began, even the "Laughing Gnome". He went from being an Anthony Newley clone to an androgenous sex god, to a diamond dog, then a Great White Duke, then a guy in the group ("The Tin Machine") to a musical recluse. He could sing rock, blues, soul, funk, ballads and Christmas songs (with Bing Crosby). He even played saxophone on a Steeleye Span album track.
I can only wonder: did all these fluctuations reflect a psychological defence mechanism which he developed from childhood? Perhaps he only felt comfortable when he pretended to be someone else? Also, in his lyrics, marvellous as they are, there seems to be an affinity with outsiders. Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust, Jean Genet ("Jean Genie"), the narrator in "Where Are We Now?" (off the penultimate album, "The Next Day") are all outsiders in some way. Did Bowie think of himself in these terms? Was he the kind of person who could feel lonely in a crowded room? I shall never know, and he might well have been none of these things. His self-imposed isolation of recent years might hint at this, however, as well as the opaque nature of some of his more recent lyrics.
This is all speculation, of course. What can definitely be said is that the worlds of music and art have lost a towering genius. Perhaps the most significant of the many tributes to Bowie came from the first British astronaut, Major Tim Peake, who tweeted from space:
"Saddened to hear David Bowie has lost his battle with cancer – his music was an inspiration to many."
I think it fair to say: Major Tom's creator would have liked that.
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I suspect that Bowie adopted as a lifestyle his alternative persona in a way that Steve Coogan would never do.
ReplyDeleteAs for Enoch Powell, he did not deserve the plaudits he received when he died, including from Blair. He had once been a man of principle but resorted to corrosive populism when his ambitions in the Tory Party failed. From Wikipedia:
"Whilst he was Health minister, he encouraged a large number of Commonwealth immigrants into the understaffed National Health Service. Prior to this, many non-white immigrants were often obliged to take the jobs that no one else wanted (e.g. street cleansing, night-shift assembly production lines), often paid considerably less than their white counterparts. Powell was vehemently opposed by the Trade Union movement (who feared that immigrants were being used by capitalists to keep wages low by artificially increasing competition for jobs), but there is no doubt that in easing non-white immigrants into what was considered a prestigious form of career, he boosted the confidence of the immigrant population and helped lay the foundations of a future immigrant-descended permanent Afro-Caribbean and Asian middle class in Britain."
This suggests that Powell inadvertently helped foster our multi-cultural society. How ironic!