Next appointments

Danny Goffey, Pearl Lowe and Drew at Rough Trade

Wednesday April 30th: Dirty Pretty Things acoustic set at Proud Gallery in Camden, The Horse Hospital, The Stables Market, Chalk Farm Road, London NW1 (Nearest Tube: Chalk Farm). Tickets are only available on the door and the venue opens at 7:00 p.m.

Carl Barat is leading the search for the best unsigned artist or group in Britain. The Dirty Pretty Things frontman will join the judging panel on April 30 at London's Proud Camden venue at the launch of the Intel Studio talent search. Barat - who will also play on the night with his band - "I decided to join this panel as I'm sick of hearing bands that all sound the same or the rubbish other talent searches produce, I hope to discover something I would want to listen to and that is also unique." Joining Barat on the panel will be Razorlight's manager Roger Morton, Dave Fawbert, boss of record label Kids and Manic Street Preachers producer Dave Eringa.

Thursday May 1st: LMHR fundraiser with Ben Bailey and friends. Ben Bailey (His Lost Boys) will host & play this FREE acoustic night with friends & specials guest (Drew McConnell confirmed); 7pm-12midnight. Donations to LMHR upon entry. Filthy MacNastys 68 Amwell Street, London EC1R 1UU 020 7837 6067, info@filthymacnastys.com.

Plus! Jon McClure, members of Supergrass, New Young Pony Club, Drew McConnell and Madame Pearl Lowe reunited yesterday at Rough Trade East (Brick Lane) for a signing session at the launch of the "Crisis Consequences" single (see photo).

Plus! Watch another video of What A Waster taken at Cargo from another angle (here).

Plus! Free Peter Fucking Doherty. Please.

Viccy Park Romp: the round-up

NME review
Gigwise article
BBC6 review
Contactmusic
The Independent
And of course, the Carnival organizers (here)

Snippets: Drew dedicated I Wish to Peter; Carl Barat was seen hanging backstage and signing autographs; Alison wrote to FDB: "Yes it was a really nice end to a memorable day and nice to actually see and talk to some of you. Thanks to all of you who came down to the march, the carnival and the aftershow. And especially those who worked their arses off as LMHR volunteers. Alison x".

Plus!

Afterparty at the Cargo Club, with Drew and Carlos (and Joe Fox, Jon McClure etc). Carlito and Drusillo played What a Waster (video here - thanks to Michelle) and Time for Heroes (video here - with the same thanks). The other afterparty at Dirty South was deserted by Carlos (good job, mate) but attended by Didz Hammond on the decks.

Later with more and more stuff.

FUCK FASCISTS AND BNP!!!

MORTE AI FASCISTI!!!

(and free Pete Doherty).

Carl goes nostalgic at Filthy's

Thanks a lot to PatrickFreer27 for putting this up. We needed something like this today.

LMHR afterparties and some Pizza news

Drew at the LMHR photocall last night

Where can you go after the mega bash at Viccy Park?

1. Choice One: Cargo 83 Rivington St Kingsland Viaduct Shoreditch London EC2A 3AY. The official after party for this year's Love Music Hate Racism carnival, taking place in Victoria Park, will see Babyshambles' Drew McConnell, and The Reverend aka Jon McClure from The Reverend and the Makers taking the stage to spread the message that music is life and racism just plain sucks. Word. Cargo is an over 18s venue. From 6 to 12. Tickets are £ 10.

2. Choice Two: Dirty South Lewisham. Rock Nite: Dirty Pretty Things DJ Set: Dave Rox + Alex G + Dirty Pretty Things At Dirty South, London The very best in old and nu rock and metal. Dirty Pretty Things DJ set only. From 8:00pm until Midnight. Tickets are £ 6.

Adrian wrote last night: "Today I visited Wormwood Scrubs prison. Had a smashing hour or so with Peter. He was clean and bored and happy to see us and very good company. Nice to see him too! He's overwhelmed by all the letters of support but can't write back individually because of the volume of good will letters and the number of stamps allowed to reply with but ... he asked me to pass on his sincere best wishes and thanks to you all. Keep on sending those emails and letters. Given the circumstances we had a wonderful time. The Albion is still on course! bb.".

Adrian is a dream of a manager, there are not so many like him out there. Peter is very lucky to have him.

Drew also spoke briefly to the NME about Peter's state (here).

Always look on the bright side of life

Eric Barat. Sorry, Carl Idle.

We thought things would have been much more exciting in these days, eh? There was the RAH gig scheduled for Saturday and the LMHR Carnival for Sunday. And the solo album. And the musical. And the Shambles third album. And collaborations, and blank gigs, and so much fun. None of those things is going to happen, of course. Peter is still behind bars, and redtops keep saying awful things about him (which we don't read and in any case don't believe), and nothing really exciting is looming anywhere. But, as good old Eric Idle used to say, "Always look on the bright side of life". So, let's give it a try.

The LMHR Carnival is still on! Peter won't be there but Drew will, with Helsinki and his "very special guests". The Lovely Drusillo spoke against BNP once again on NME.com: "Drew McConnell has urged London residents to vote in the forthcoming London assembly elections to prevent the British National Party from having a chance of getting a seat.McConnell is playing with a new band featuring Reverend And The Makers' Jon McClure and ex-Arctic Monkeys' Andy Nicholson on Sunday (April 27) at the Love Music Hate Racism carnival in London's Victoria Park. Speaking to NME.COM, McConnell said, "Assembly elections happen on May 1. The London assembly elections happen every four years, and last time the BNP were just 5,000 votes off getting a seat. That might sound like a lot, but 5,000 votes is actually just 0.1 per cent!"The polls are predicting the BNP to win two seats this year, which would be disastrous. As I understand it each elected member is given an office, £400,000 a year funding and, most terrifyingly in the case of the BNP, legitimacy and a platform from which to spout their vile hatred right into the heart of our nation's capital."Hopefully the LMHR carnival will go some way to stopping this happen. We know we're only musicians, and we can't change the world armed only with guitars and bad haircuts. But there's nothing wrong with having a go, eh?" If 100,000 people turn up to our event, they might just go and vote on May 1 too. We won't get fooled again!". Bad haircut? Where did you hear that, man???

Drew and his band are also playing at the Soho Revue Bar on 28 April, together with the Holloways, Six Nation State and Jay Jay Pistolet (here).

Adam speaks again to Gigwise, hinting at the Shambles third album (here).

Good people are not forsaking Peter! A poll issued by Sky.com among British youths (under 25) saw the man voted the second most popular male hero, behind footballer Stephen Gerrard.

On DPT front, Carlos is dj-ing tomorrow at Filthy's (166 Heath Road, Twickenham) with live performances from Champion, Klesma Vilanova, Hannah Pearce & very special guest (Carl has his "very special guests" too! Well, as long as they're not the Chavs it's all right). Tickets are 8.00 on the door.

Against all odds, the second Dirty Pretty Things album is going to be released after all. No artwork and no tracklist yet, and the title is still that "Truth begins" stuff but it seems there is a release date now, and it's 30 June. At least, that's what Barat said to a fan last week.

Laura Barnett from The Guardian has written an article about the "Libertines musical". Not the right moment, but here it is.

So, as you can see, there are still many things to look forward to. While we are waiting. Let's hope not for too long.

Hot Tips

Adamski speaks of the state of the nation

Pizza writes about his state (above)

DPT's official site announces another DJ set

And Stoke Sounds reviews Carl and Didz's set (plus Chis Hawkins) of 19 April (Hanley Victoria Hall)

Dance little sister!

Don't give up today

Hang on till tomorrow

I don't want to hear you're late

Ahem. Sorry. Adios.

The Carnival is getting closer

And today there's very interesting article by Sarfraz Manzoor on The Observer.
Read on:

Sunday April 20, 2008
On 30 April 1978, a crowd gathered in Victoria Park in London's East End. They had come from all over the country - 42 coaches from Glasgow, 15 from Sheffield, an entire trainload from Manchester - marching across London from Trafalgar Square to attend a special all-day concert headlined by Tom Robinson and the Clash. The day had been organised by 'Rock Against Racism', a grassroots political movement that used music to campaign against the looming electoral threat of the National Front. To mark the anniversary of the concert, as well as to highlight the continuing struggle against racism, another all-day music concert is being staged next week.
Many of those who will gather in Victoria Park next Sunday to watch the Good, the Bad and the Queen, Hard-Fi, the View and the others on the bill were not even born 30 years ago. But for those who attended the original concert in 1978 it was a show that changed their lives and helped change Britain. Rock Against Racism radicalised a generation, it showed that music could do more than just entertain: it could make a difference. By demonstrating the power of music to effect change it inspired Live Aid and its supporters claim it helped destroy the National Front. It was the triumphant climax to a story that began two years earlier, following one hot August night in Birmingham.
It was 5 August 1976 and Eric Clapton was drunk, angry and on stage at the Birmingham Odeon. 'Enoch was right,' he told the audience, 'I think we should send them all back.' Britain was, he complained, in danger of becoming 'a black colony' and a vote for controversial Tory politician Enoch Powell whom he described as a prophet was needed to 'keep Britain white'. Although the irony was possibly lost on Clapton, the Odeon in Birmingham is on New Street, minutes from the Midland Hotel where eight years earlier Powell had made his infamous 'Rivers of Blood' speech. But if the coincidence was curious, the hypocrisy was breathtaking: Clapton's career was based on appropriating black music, and he had recently had a hit with Bob Marley's 'I Shot the Sheriff'.
In usual circumstances his comments would have been merely ill advised, but it was the social and political context which made Clapton's intervention so chilling. The National Front had won 40 per cent of the votes in the spring elections in Blackburn. One month earlier an Asian teenager, Gurdip Singh Chaggar, had been murdered by a gang of white youths in Southall. 'One down - a million to go' was the response to the killing from John Kingsley Read of the National Front. Sid Vicious and Siouxsie Sioux were sporting swastikas as fashion statements. David Bowie, who three months earlier had been photographed apparently giving a Nazi salute in Victoria Station, told Cameron Crowe in the September 1976 edition of Playboy '... yes I believe very strongly in fascism. The only way we can speed up the sort of liberalism that's hanging foul in the air... is a right-wing totally dictatorial tyranny...' In that same interview Bowie claimed that 'Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars.' This was Britain then in the sweltering summer of 1976, and in that context Clapton's comments were potentially incendiary.
Red Saunders was a rock photographer and political activist who had been inspired and radicalised by the events of 1968. When he heard Clapton's comments he felt compelled to register his opposition. 'I was outraged,' Saunders tells me. 'I was a fan of the blues and had seen Clapton playing in the Sixties at the Marquee Club, I couldn't believe he could now be saying what he was.' Saunders decided to pen a letter of protest to the music press. In the letter, published in the NME, Melody Maker, Sounds and the Socialist Worker, Saunders and other signatories including his friend Roger Huddle wrote: 'Come on Eric... Own up. Half your music is black. You're rock music's biggest colonist... We want to organise a rank and file movement against the racist poison music... we urge support for Rock against Racism. P.S. Who shot the Sheriff, Eric? It sure as hell wasn't you!' The letter urged those readers wanting to join Rock Against Racism to write to them. Within a fortnight there were more than 600 replies. Three months later, in November 1976, Rock Against Racism held its first ever gig, featuring Carol Grimes, in the Princess Alice pub in east London. 'We had friends who were dockers who had become anti-racist after the Powell speech,' Roger Huddle recalls, 'and they provided the security for the gig because the NF were really active in the area.'
When Paul Furness read the letter in the NME he was working as a medical records clerk at Leeds General Infirmary. 'Leeds was a dark, depressed city,' Furness told me, 'there was lots of youth unemployment, the Yorkshire Ripper was still loose - so when I read the letter in the NME it was like a breath of fresh air, it was what I had been waiting for.' Buoyed by the enthusiastic response, RAR (Rock Against Racism) began organising concerts which would feature multiracial line-ups sharing the bill. The concerts would end with reggae bands like Aswad and Steel Pulse playing with punk bands such as the Ruts, the Slits and Generation X. Misty in Roots, a Southall-based reggae group played more concerts than any other band for RAR. 'Music can help bring people together,' lead singer Poko tells me. 'When you saw a band like ours jamming with Tom Robinson or Elvis Costello it showed that if you love music we can all live together.'
In Leeds Paul Furness established a RAR club where, every Friday night for 18 months, bands would perform in the common room of Leeds Polytechnic. He tells me of the night he went to see a Tom Robinson concert with three female friends. 'After the gig I went up to him to try and persuade him to play at the RAR club,' he says 'and as I was talking Tom saw a bunch of guys wearing badges indicating they were gay. He told me he had to talk to them. "Some of us don't wear badges," I told him. He looked at me and said, "Are you gay?" and I said "Yes."' It was the first time that Furness had publicly acknowledged his sexuality. 'What did your three female friends think about you coming out to Tom Robinson?' I ask. 'I just remember them laughing,' he says 'Mind you, all three of them are now lesbians.'
By the following year RAR was publishing its own magazine, Temporary Hoarding. David Widgery's editorial in its first issue was the organisation's first manifesto. 'We want Rebel music, street music,' it declared, 'music that breaks down people's fear of one another. Crisis music. Now music. Music that knows who the real enemy is. Rock Against Racism. Love Music Hate Racism.' The magazine carried concert reviews as well as political advice for organisers. 'I remember that we would get a phone call,' says Saunders, 'and they would say I want to join my nearest RAR group, and we would say where do you live, and they would say Lowestoft, so we'd say: you are now the Lowestoft RAR group. And we would then send them a box of badges and instructions on how to make banners and that would be it.'
The appeal of Rock Against Racism for music fans was that it had recruited the biggest names in the emerging punk culture. By 1977 RAR could claim the support of most of the innovative bands of the time - Stiff Little Fingers, Sham 69, the Tom Robinson Band, Steel Pulse, Misty in Roots and the Clash. The Sex Pistols, although they were booked to play Wigan for RAR, never managed to make it on stage, but John Lydon was unequivocal in his opposition to the National Front, telling one interviewer: 'I despise them. No one should have the right to tell anyone they can't live here because of the colour of their skin or their religion... How could anyone vote for something so ridiculously inhumane?'
'Rock against Racism made it cool to be anti-racist,' says Professor John Street, who has written on the relationship between music and politics. 'Because we had all these bands backing us, we could say that the Nazis are against our music,' says Huddle, 'they want us only to listen to marching bands and Strauss.'
It was a message that resonated with Billy Bragg, then living in Barking and working as a bank messenger. 'I had seen the Clash on the first night of the White Riot tour,' he tells me, 'and I remember thinking that the fascists were against anybody who wanted to be different - once they had dealt with the immigrants then they would move onto the gays and then the punks; before I knew it the music I loved would be repatriated.'
Following success in the spring 1977 elections - where they pushed the Liberals into fourth place in nearly a quarter of constituencies - the NF were threatening to achieve an electoral breakthrough. The Anti-Nazi League - which had formed in 1977 - were keen to hold a joint demonstration with RAR in the spring of 1978 to encourage supporters to vote against the National Front in May's council elections. The Greater London Council - then Conservative-led - gave permission to use Victoria Park, which had been the rallying ground of London's Chartists in 1848. The date was set for Sunday 30 April and the plan was for a carnival in Trafalgar Square followed by an open-air concert in Victoria Park. In Beating Time, David Widgery's history of RAR, he writes that they wanted to turn the day into 'the biggest piece of revolutionary street theatre London had ever seen, a 10th anniversary tribute to the Paris events of May 1968.' By holding the concert in the East End, RAR was declaring its intention of taking the battle into the heart of where the National Front was trying to build support.
Three weeks before the carnival, two parcel bombs were delivered by the neo-Nazi organisation Column 88 to the headquarters of the Communist Party and the trade union Nupe. On 21 April, nine days before the carnival, 10-year-old Kennith Singh was stabbed to death yards from his east London home. The killers - who were never found - left eight stab wounds in the back of his head.
Film-maker Gurinder Chadha was living above her parents' shop in Norbury, south London. 'Being in a shop we were very vulnerable because the next person who walked in could beat you up,' she recalls. 'I was really into RAR. When I heard about the carnival I was determined to go, but my parents said there was no way.'
In the week of the carnival Johnny Mathis appeared on Top of the Pops and Brian and Michael had been at number one for three weeks with Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs. The only mention of the concert in London's Evening Standard was tucked away on page 25, below Celia Brayfield's 'On the Town' column, the last entry for the weekend's gig guide. In the early hours of Sunday morning Paul Furness left Leeds on his way to London. 'I have a vivid memory of seeing all these coaches with colourful RAR posters,' he tells me 'and the closer we came to London the more coaches there were.' In Victoria Park, sodden from the rain that had lashed down all week, Anti-Nazi League activists had spent the previous night sleeping on the stage to protect it from being attacked by the National Front.
In Trafalgar Square 10,000 people had gathered, the crowd growing as it began to make its way to east London. 'Trafalgar Square was raked with colour,' David Widgery recorded. 'Yellow ANL roundels, punk pink Rock Against Racism stars, Day-Glo flags oscillating in approval to the speeches.' It's worth looking at archive footage of the day in Alan Miles's documentary Who Shot the Sheriff? where its possible to get at least a flavour of what that day must have been like: steel drummers on the back of flat bed trucks, huge papier-mache head of NF leaders and Hitler (made by Peter Fluck and Roger Law who later went on to create Spitting Image) and lots of lots of banners. 'Scottish young Communists' read one, 'Gay Switchboard' read another, while a third said in both defiance and hope, 'Queer jew boy socialist seeks a better world.'
Having rained all night and morning, the sun then broke through at 1.30pm. 'I was in Victoria Park and when I introduced the first act, X-Ray Spex, there were only a few hundred people in the park,' recalls Roger Huddle, 'but by the second song the march had arrived.' Throughout the afternoon they came, punks spilling out of coaches in leather and safety pins to join vicars, hippies and trade unionists. By the evening upwards of 80,000 were in Victoria Park to see the Clash take to the stage. In archive footage the entire park appears to throb in a pulsating pogo, a metronomic bounce. Among them was Gurinder Chadha, who had told her parents she was going shopping in Croydon but had sneaked into the concert on her own. 'The whole of the park was jumping up and down to the Clash,' Chadha tells me. 'It was an incredibly emotional moment because for the first time I felt that I was surrounded by people who were on my side. That was the first time I thought that something had changed in Britain forever.'
In the following week's local elections the National Front failed to secure any seats and its level of support fell. In July Rock Against Racism staged a carnival in Manchester featuring Steel Pulse and the Buzzcocks. It was followed in September with a second London concert in Brixton's Brockwell Park with Stiff Little Fingers, Aswad and Elvis Costello. By the end of 1978 RAR had organised 300 local concerts and five carnivals. In the run up to the 1979 election it staged a 'Militant Entertainment Tour' featuring 40 bands at 23 concerts covering more than 2,000 miles on the road.
In the general election the NF's 303 candidates averaged just 0.6 per cent of the overall vote. There is an argument that the election of the Conservative government signalled the death knell for the National Front. Far-right parties thrive under Labour governments; the NF were strongest during the mid-Seventies, a time of great disillusionment with a Labour government seen as economically incompetent. Margaret Thatcher had already expressed her concern that Britain was being 'swamped by people of a different culture', a barely coded come-on to the extreme right. But even if some NF votes went to the Conservatives, it is not the full explanation of the drop in NF support.
'There is a danger in believing that politics is all top down,' explains Ian Goodyer, who is writing a book on RAR, 'that Thatcher just pulled the rug from under the racists' feet, but the truth is that by 1979 Rock Against Racism and the ANL had thoroughly discredited the National Front.' Before RAR, the NF had staged intimidatory marches in areas with large immigrant communities, but once RAR began to demonstrate that they could put thousands on the street in opposition to them, the NF were forced to retreat. 'We isolated them at work and we isolated them at the colleges,' claims Roger Huddle, 'and by the end of it they were a spent force mentally and politically. I don't want to overstate what we did, but I am sick to death of understating it.'
Thirty years on and it is not difficult to identify the legacy of Rock Against Racism. That influence was both political and musical. 'It built a circuit of gigs and concerts on which a lot of bands cut their teeth,' explains Ian Goodyer. 'And these small gigs relied on the people in the grassroots getting involved.' Such people include Paul Furness, whose RAR club in Leeds staged the only Rock Against Racism concert featuring Joy Division. The strategy of encouraging black and white bands to jam together paved the way for the ska revival, 2-Tone and multi-racial bands such as the Beat (who, according to Red Saunders, first met in Victoria Park) and the Specials.
'We started out at the same time as RAR,' Specials founder Jerry Dammers tells me, 'so it was all part of the same thing and for me it was no good being anti-racist if you didn't involve black people, so what the Specials tried to do was create something that was more integrated.'
Rock Against Racism also demonstrated that it was possible to use pop culture to highlight political causes. It was this that inspired Dammers, Billy Bragg, Tom Robinson and Paul Weller to set up Red Wedge, an anti-Thatcher popular movement in the run up to the 1987 general election. Like RAR, Red Wedge featured musicians touring in support of a cause, but unlike RAR it was explicitly party political: it aimed to help defeat the Conservative government. But in the 1987 general election Labour's youth vote decreased.
Where RAR and Red Wedge were about raising awareness, Live Aid was about raising funds. While there are some parallels - rocks stars performing in a large outdoor venue for a good cause - the Live Aid and later Live 8 concerts were very different in their ambitions to Rock Against Racism. Three months after the 1978 concert in Victoria Park, Bob Geldof, then lead singer of The Boomtown Rats, told Sounds magazine he did not believe in political rallies, adding 'I think all revolutions are meaningless'. The Live Aid and Live 8 concerts were huge spectacles designed for a mass television audience; the audience members were witnesses, not activists. Live 8 did advertise itself as being about 'justice, not charity' but the level of participation demanded was modest: a text message to register concern, a click on an on-line petition. Rock against Racism was a grassroots movement which encouraged members to campaign and challenge those in power; Live 8 relied on stars such as Bono and Geldof cajoling and flattering the powerful, hence Bono's appearance at a Labour Party conference where he dubbed Gordon Brown and Tony Blair the Lennon and McCartney of global development.
As for Rock Against Racism, the organisation disbanded in July 1981 with a final carnival in Leeds that was headlined by the Specials. Looking into the crowd, Neville Staple from the band remarked: 'It's like a zebra crossing, black and white, black and white as far as you can see.'
And that, you might think, would be the end of the story. Except that the story of Rock Against Racism, like the story of racism itself, is not yet over. On 4 May 1978, the week after the Victoria Park carnival and the same day as the National Front were beaten in the local elections, a 25-year-old Asian man Altab Ali was murdered in London's Whitechapel Road on his way home from a religious festival. The following month Ishaque Ali was murdered in Hackney.
According to the Institute of Race Relations there have been more than 65 murders in Britain since 1991 with a suspected or known racial motive. And yet with notable exceptions - Stephen Lawrence, Anthony Walker - there is little attention paid to these killings. Meanwhile, as East Europeans and white Britons also face race attacks, racism itself has become less black and white. 'I talk to my brothers and other black friends,' says film-maker and DJ Don Letts 'and they are complaining about the Poles and I say to them, brethren - that was us 40 years ago.'
The dark days of NF marches may be history but the threat from the BNP is, some claim, even greater. As in the mid-Seventies there is economic uncertainty and scepticism about immigration, but today it is coupled with apprehension about multiculturalism and a BNP that has worked hard to disassociate itself from the thuggish image of the National Front. 'In some ways the BNP are stronger than the NF,' says Jerry Dammers. 'There is a bland fascism that is very dangerous and it's creeping into the mainstream.'
In 2002 Rock Against Racism was revived but renamed Love Music Hate Racism. In their offices near Victoria station national organiser Lee Billingham told me that LMHR sees itself as the direct descendant of RAR. 'Love Music Hate Racism is a RAR slogan,' he tells me. 'We're the same grassroots movement. These days the fascists wear suits and the disillusionment with mainstream politics is even worse.' The organisation is behind next Sunday's 30th anniversary concert in Victoria Park with the Good, the Bad and the Queen (which features former Clash guitarist Paul Simonon), Hard-Fi, Bishi, Jay Sean and many others. The need for a popular movement against racism might still exist but does music still contain the power to inspire and enthuse? 'Music gets political when there are new ideas in music,' says Jerry Dammers, who will be playing a DJ set next week, '...punk was innovative, so was ska, and that was why bands such as the Specials and the Clash could be political.'
If today's bands are no longer so interested in kick-starting a revolution, audiences, too, often seem to regard music as just another form of entertainment, to be downloaded as a ringtone. 'They used to say don't trust anyone over 30,' says Don Letts, 'but today I don't trust anyone under 30 - let's be blunt: today's young are spoilt motherfuckers.'
Letts, however, has not met Carolynn Hansen and Frances Smith, two 18-year-old students who are part of the new generation of anti-racist activists. The girls live in Barking in east London and are studying at the same school that Billy Bragg attended four decades earlier; they seem to have inherited some of his political fervour. Both fans of the Libertines and Babyshambles, they were drawn into LMHR because of Pete Doherty's involvement. Babyshambles had been due to headline next Sunday's event, until Doherty was incarcerated once again for drug offences. 'It was the music that got us interested,' Carolynn tells me, 'but then we got into the ethos of what LMHR is about.' The girls have been handing out flyers in their classes, they help out in the LMHR offices and on the day they will be at Victoria Park at eight in the morning helping put the stalls up.
I wanted to know why they cared so much, this generation whom we are often told are apathetic. 'But some people are incredibly politically aware,' protests Frances, 'and with things like MySpace and Facebook it's much easier for those of us who do care to organise things.' But what, I asked, about those who say the music of Babyshambles, say, is not explicitly political like Billy Bragg or the Clash. Does that not matter? 'Music is incredibly important in my life,' says Carolynn, 'that's why I was drawn to this cause, but even if the message is not in the song, if the artist portrays it in their interviews or by getting involved, then the fans are going to think its worth looking into.'
I leave the girls and head to the Groucho Club in Soho where I meet Drew McConnell, the bassist for Babyshambles. With Doherty in prison McConnell is assembling an all-star super-group, featuring his own band Helsinki and special guests, to play at the anniversary gig. 'I wasn't even born at the time of the first carnival,' he tells me, 'but when I found out that the BNP had started a record company and were handing out CDs outside schools with racist music I just felt offended. That they were using music of all things.' McConnell, along with other bands, decided to record an alternative CD, which the NME helped to distribute with support from teachers. McConnell tells me of messages he reads that are sent to the band's MySpace site from young fans who say they would not have known about LMHR and would not have become active were it not for the band's involvement. 'I feel honoured to be involved in LMHR,' he says. 'The 1978 carnival is something that is etched into history for ever.'
This summer, in the last weekend of June, Eric Clapton will headline two shows in London and Leeds, the locations for the first and last Rock against Racism carnivals. While David Bowie had distanced himself from his pro-Nazi remarks, Clapton has not only never apologised for his outburst, but has continued to praise Powell; only last December on The South Bank Show he reiterated his support for the man and four years ago he told Uncut magazine that Powell had been 'outrageously brave'. In fact the truly 'outrageously brave' ones were those who spoke up against the hate mongers and stood up for a vision of a liberal and tolerant Britain; apathy and cynicism is easy, but Rock Against Racism was gloriously uncynical.
'We provided hope to punk culture,' says Roger Huddle. 'Without RAR, punk would have been only about hopelessness and nihilism.' Rock Against Racism, the activists, artists and audience, also provided hope to the Asians and blacks who might have feared that the entire nation was against them. 'Before Rock against Racism there was a sense that it was OK to be racist,' says Gurinder Chadha, 'but with RAR we got to see that there were others willing to speak out against racism and talk about a different kind of Britain.'
Thirty years after the Victoria Park carnival the story of Rock Against Racism is only fleetingly mentioned in most histories of punk, but that does not diminish its extraordinary achievement. It's an achievement that can perhaps only be gauged by imagining how else things might have been had Red Saunders not been moved to write that letter, had courageous souls like Roger Huddle, Paul Furness and the rest not joined the movement: Eric Clapton would have got away with making racist comments, the National Front would have continued to march into immigrant areas stirring up hatred, winning votes and seats and the course of British politics could have been very different.
Let the last word go to Red Saunders: 'The lesson from Rock Against Racism,' he tells me, 'is that we can all intervene, make a difference and change things: nothing is inevitable.'
· Love Music Hate Racism's carnival takes place on 27 April in Victoria Park, London E3. For full details see lmhr.org.uk/about/rock.html
Black and white unite
Tom Robinson recalls: 'At the time the National Front were gaining electoral ground. Suddenly instead of getting three leaflets through your letterbox during the local elections, you'd get four: left, centre left, right and Nazi. It was as stark as that. And the NF were becoming bolder in their attempts to intimidate immigrants with marches and violence.
'The Tom Robinson Band had been keen supporters of Rock Against Racism - playing small gigs right from our earliest days. From the outset RAR was a grassroots movement, avoiding stars and celebrities. There was a sense of solidarity among groups like X-Ray Spex, Steel Pulse and my band TRB, who all played RAR gigs in the early days before any of us were famous. The thing I remember about that particular gig at the Alexandra Palace was the performance of Alex Harvey. He just commanded the stage and he performed an extraordinary version of Bob Marley's "Small Axe" [with the refrain 'If you are the big tree/ We are the small axe']. He divided the audience in two with one side singing "big tree" and the other "small axe" and summed up our struggle with those two simple phrases.
'What mattered was the fact that we all took part in an astonishing celebration of music, fun, justice and the politics of tolerance. The struggle for a more just and civilised society is an ongoing fight that each generation has to carry forward.'
Speaking out against the NF
Darcus Howe says: 'The atmosphere felt sharp. You knew you were making a stance. It was crucial: I lived in the area, I had got married there and my first daughter was born there, so I was part of the community. The National Front had come trying to terrorise us.
'The police put up barriers and cordoned us off so it ended up like a meeting in a park. The gathering was largely black people supported by young white activists. The slogan was "Don't let them pass".
'I was asked to speak right there on the spot. I was not on the list of speakers but [RAR campaigner] David Widgery said: "Give that man the megaphone." I always spoke in dulcet tones like a preacher from the pulpit. I said: "They haven't come here to mobilise us to support them, they come here to terrorise." I delivered rhetoric about standing up, about the fact that black people in America were standing up and rhetoric about Africa.
'The major thing in my mind was, "Come what may, we are here to stay." Today it sounds ridiculous to say that but in those days it was the era of the campaign for repatriation and if the government weren't going to do it, the National Front were going to do it. But in the end, they dropped their flags and ran away.'

People who were at Camden Crawl yesterday saw Drew playing an impromptu performance at Lock 17 replacing Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong. He did a few shambles songs and 3 songs of his own, closing the set with Albion. Lovely, and unexpected. As ever.

Thank God it's Friday

And we can relax a bit can't we?

• The t-shirt above is not a joke. It's on sale on ebay at about 6 quid.
• Lots of Peter-related idiocies in the press today.
• The sweet Adam writes: "Thanks to everyone who showed up for the Siam party in Thailand. It had to be one of the hottest places I have ever played - and I've played some hotties! Ate bbq crickets, frogs and cockroaches...then Island hopped to some amazing coastal areas to unwind and escape the shambolicisms unwrapping in the UK. Returned home to find a christmas sackfull of cd requests, which I've just about got on top of. Finally have now managed to throw some time into the remixpotatoe mash up side of life, have come up with a nice strokes vs babyshambles affair, will play it out when I next see you all. Next up - I have my eye on a vampire weekend vs chas and dave - it can be done! PS, If you haven't sent for a roses kings cd then do so, I've plenty left. Adam". Of course, that was not an idiocy (but it wasn't in the press either).
• Babyshambles have been added to the line-up of the 2008 Montreaux Jazz Festival, taking place July 4-19 (on the Lake Geneva shoreline...).
• Dirty Pretty Things are playing at Proud Gallery on April 30th.
• And if you happen to hang in Barcelona tonight the Mighty Carlos is doing a dj set. The place is this: Vilanova i la Geltrú, and the flyer talks of a "DJ Carl Barat (Libertines, Dirty Pretty Things)". Spectacular. Dances start at 11.30.
• Remember John Hassall? He and his band Yeti are releasing their first single on 26th May. The single is called "Don't go back to the one you love", like a mix of the Libertines' "Don't look back into the sun" and R.E.M.'s "The one I love". Kidding. I bet it'll be out before DPT's next single.

Adrian writes again

Hello folks, was oot at The Scrubs today and contrary to some reports yesterday Peter is doing just fine. I am very pleased with his demeanour. All's well folks. bb.

And the RAH box office manager writes to disappointed non-goers:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for booking tickets for Peter Doherty at the Royal Albert Hall on 26 April 2008. I regret to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances this concert is unable to take place as planned - please accept our apologies for any disappointment this may have caused. We are currently working with the promoter of this event to investigate whether the concert can be rescheduled for a date later this year and I wanted to provide you with an update in this respect. It is our intention to contact all those that have purchased tickets via our Box Office again within the next two weeks with further information. At this time we will either confirm the new date of the concert or offer you a full refund (including booking fee) on your tickets - this also includes any bookings made for car parking at the Imperial College. Should you however wish to receive a refund prior to our next communication, then please contact our Box Office on 020 7589 8212 and they will process this to the original method of payment used to purchase the tickets. Thank you for your patience while we resolve this matter and I very much hope that we are able to welcome you to the Royal Albert Hall in the near future. Yours faithfully, Robin Dennis Box Office Operations Manager.

For the ever optimistic crew: Peter is believed to be out at the end of June and so play Glasto. Nothing has been confirmed of course.

The NME reviews DPT's snowboarding adventure

I don't buy the mag anymore, so thanks to Linna for providing the transcript.

Dirty Pretty Things choose Bestival-On-Ice for their live return.
………. “they manage to pull a blinder by nabbing Dirty Pretty Things for what is essentially - a few acoustic spots here and there aside - their guns-blazing return to the live stage. And what a return it is; loud enough to kick-start an avalanche on the glorious snow-peaked mountains that surround us, the four boys in the band are as grungily charming and as rock n roll as ever. Their half-puffed ciggies rest in their guitar necks, the novelty of being allowed to legally smoke indoors clearly amusing them - and the crowd - no end.
Drags on fags are broken up by Carl Barat, rocking naughty public schoolboy floppy locks, swigging from a bottle of red wine and pummelling through the rollicking Deadwood and YFLI. From their forthcoming second album the shameless Kinksy clatter of Hippys Son lifts the snow battered crowd, while the sweet balladry of Come Closer brings to mind the kind of simple tune a shy teen would write for the most popular girl in class, but never ever play to her in a million years. Plastic Hearts sees Carl take on a role that’s closer to narrator than rock singer; he could just as easily be fronting a slightly debauched poetry reading as a gig. Didz Hammond and Anthony Rossomando continue to be the perfect foils to Carl’s louche stage manner, and are just as interesting to watch; Didz with a swagger that could make the Gallagher brothers cower (plus an ever expanding tache) and Anthony, with a seemingly possessed guitar that he brandishes like a loaded tommy gun and pokes towards the front few rows.
To finish, Anthony takes the trumpet for the bugling intro to a hectic run through of the pounding “Bang Bang”. As he lifts it to his mouth, a beer can comes spiralling towards him, but he smoothly volleys the offending receptacle back into the audience with the tip of said trumpet. It’s slick, funny and a little bit stupid and that’s pretty much what makes a band great, isn’t it? ……. “

Backstage:
What do you think of Snowboarding?

Didz: People come up here to spend five hours snowboarding up the mountains and when they come back down they just wanna get off their heads - that’s really the key ingredient of it all

Anthony: I’ve never understood skiiing - I’ve never known anything about it but I found out for the first time tonight. It’s beautiful up in the mountains but there are a lot of really stupid hats.

Carl: It’s like playing on another planet. These are the kind of people we never used to feel affiliated with, but since our time on the slopes I can tell you that they’re a mean bunch of fuckers.

Anthony: It was my first time on a ski lift, first time on snow. We woke up too late for skis and there was only one snowboard between us

Carl: For the first time I had lessons on a snowboard and I came back with a very sore botty.
And what about the gig?

Didz: We kind of go to these things with our eyes shut, just looking at each other and then as the gig progresses, generally we open out

Anthony: Tonight we were more focused on each other, but the snowboarders seemed to be having a good time

Carl: We’ve got a lot of new stuff, but didn’t really figure that this would be the night to play them, so we just played four new ones out of 12

Didz: We’ve done a few little gigs recently; we did an acoustic show in Paris and we did the little thing for Crisis

Carl: …… but this is definitely our sweatiest return to date.

Babyshambles bio on the way

Cassell Illustrated has paid a "healthy five-figure sum" for world rights in the authorised biography of indie band Babyshambles.
Babyshambles: The Official Story will be published in November as a paperback and will be written by the band’s members and their entourage, along with Reuters journalist Spencer Honniball. It was bought from Simon Benham at Mayer Benham.
Publisher Matthew Clayton said it would tell “the most exciting rock ’n’ roll story of the last five years”. He compared it to classic rock biographies Hammer of the Gods, about Led Zeppelin, and The Dirt, about ’80s metal band Mötley Crüe.
"If you are looking at music biographies, you couldn’t get a more dramatic or outrageous rock ’n’ roll story,” he said. He refused to be drawn on tales of rock ’n’ roll excess but said that the book would be the “classic rock biography that tells all".
Babyshambles, led by ex-Libertines frontman Pete Doherty, has had an eventful career, including a rotating line-up, Doherty’s struggle with drug addiction amid several incarcerations in prison and his high-profile relationship with, and break-up from, supermodel Kate Moss, in addition to several critically acclaimed albums.

Drew's "supergroup" for LMHR Carnival

Babyshambles bassist Drew McConnell will form an indie supergroup for the forthcoming Love Music Hate Racism carnival, set to take place on April 27 in London's Victoria Park. McConnell's band Helsinki will include Jon McClure of Reverend And The Makers, Andy Nicholson, formerly of Arctic Monkeys, Ed Larrikin and Babyshambles' guitarist Mik Whitnall. Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex, who performed at the carnival in 1978, will also perform with Helsinki. McConnell is expected to announce further special guests for the carnival, which is free to attend.

Speaking about the carnival, McConnell said: "This has got to be the most important event of the year. Dozens of the best acts around, a huge celebration of multicultural London and a chance to help stop those BNP racists gaining a foothold in the capital. We'll be there doing our bit, so bring everybody you know and join us! Oh – and the whole thing's free, so put your hand in your pocket and give generously to the anti-racist cause." Other bands set to appear on the bill include Hard-Fi, Patrick Wolf and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

Still on the festival subject, The Enemy will replace Pete Doherty as the Sunday night headliner of the Guernsey Live Music Festival. The event will take place at Victoria Avenue Fields, Guernsey, from 3-4 May.

Meanwhile, Peter is believed to be writing music while behind bars. Adam, Drew and Mik are all sending tapes to him. Fingers crossed waiting for the appeal.

News from jail

Another message from Babybear at French Dog Writtles:

"Hi All, just a quick one to let you know Peter is fine and bearing up stoically. As soon as I have any more news regarding show reschedules etc I'll let you know here. Thanks for the massive number of e mails of support for Peter to lazy-eye@hotmail.co.uk I'll make sure they are all passed on. No direct contact details at the prison I can give at the moment but if and when I can I'll let you all know. All the best, bb".

The line up of the LMHR Carnival has been modified (following the incarceration), and Babyshambles' slot has been replaced by "Drew McConnell (Babyshambles) & friends ft very special guests".

A nation turns its back and gags

Poor ex Libertines! They just cannot do anything right in these days. First, according to the redtops, people are "furious" at Peter for being imprisoned. That is, he knew what was coming and got himself framed like a cretin when he had the RAH sold out gig and the LMHR carnival waiting for him. Etcetera. But Adamski puts on a brave face:

"Drummer Adam Ficek has explained that the band are still ploughing on with plans for their new album, despite Pete Doherty's incarceration" says NME.com "The drummer told NME.COM that the band had a series of new demos they had been working on, and are set to meet producer Stephen Street to discuss album plans. Although Street has not been signed up to produce the band's third album, Ficek, currently on holiday in Thailand, said they would discuss ideas with him soon."We stick together, stay positive and keep the music alive," Ficek told NME.COM. "Just before I went on holiday we reconvened and gave Peter a new CD full of songs to start demo-ing for the new album. Mik [Whitnall, guitar] had gone into the studio and put down guitar parts and ideas."Speaking of the possibility of working again with Stephen Street, who produced the band's second album 'Shotter's Nation', Ficek was optimistic, saying: "I love Stephen – we'll meet up with him soon and see what ideas he's got, take it from there."I definitely think we'll have a new album out at the end of this year or early next year. The 'Shambles ship will stay on course. This [Doherty's incarceration] is a real bad thing for a friend, but he's going to be fine."

Secondly, Carlos Barat got Wigan kids "furious" because he cancelled his DJ set for the second time. A DJ set is not exactly the Royal Albert Hall but the Mighty Carlos has been using this "been busy working on the album" excuse a little bit too much lately. Read on (from Wigan Today):

"Indie rocker Carl Barât has pulled the plug on his DJ set appearance at Club Nirvana on Friday night – the second time he has cancelled in recent weeks. And the decision has angered Lupine, organiser of the gig, which says it has lost hundreds of pounds promoting the night. Barât and his Dirty Pretty Things band member Didz Hammond said they were pulling out of the gig because they are still in the studio finishing their upcoming album. A statement on the band's website reads: "We are very sorry to confirm that Carl and Didz's DJ set at the Northern Lights night at Club Nirvana has had to be cancelled as the boys are still in the studio putting the finishing touches on the second album." The boys apologise to all of you who were planning to attend and hope that they will be able to reschedule at a later date."Barât, the former co-frontman of The Libertines, was originally due to play at Club Nirvana, on Clarence Yard, at the end of March to kick off the Easter weekend.This was then postponed and rescheduled for April. Dylan Harris, from Lupine, said: "We're very disappointed that Carl and Didz have pulled out as it was looking set to be a great night. "We had worked hard on promoting the event first time around, then we had to work around the postponement." A lot of tickets had been sold; it was definitely going to be a sell out."We are not wholly convinced that they will want to reschedule it for a date it the future. "We will have to see if we can get more guarantees of an appearance and then take it from there. "We'll be carrying on the night with the same bands and Northern Lights DJs at the usual price of £3. "Anyone who has bought tickets can claim a refund at point of purchase."

THE SHARKS' BANQUET

So, what did we expect? Britain’s most dangerous figure has been finally locked up and the sharks are celebrating. The same people who only two days ago were condemning the Olympic torch protesters because “sport is sport and politics is politics” (since when are human rights considered “politics”? Oh but hang on… there’s something happening in England in 2012 isn’t there?), the same people who keep pestering us everyday with Amy Winehouse’s skin problems, with the Hilton heiress’s naked butt and with their two-penny rancid “philosophy” and right winged idiocy, those people are now celebrating because the Villain is in gaol and their toilet paper is going to sell loads so that they will be able to spend a holiday in a five star resort with their horrible fat wives and their unbearable children.
Great. Keep celebrating, sharks. For us, nothing has changed. Peter’s been imprisoned many times before, and he’s always come out stronger than yesterday. People keep buying his records and going to his gigs, and listening to his music. And maybe voting him “Hero of the Year”. That’s what drives you mad, isn’t it? And you believe 14 weeks in prison are going to change our mind? Ha. If I were you I wouldn’t laugh too hard. The man could be free again within one month. And kick all your stupid fat asses before you can scream “Babyshambles”.

Message from Babybear

Adrian posted this to FDB:

"It's only 14 weeks. But who can face 14 weeks. Peter can. With your support! Damn I feel sad but ...... Get off your arses and down to LMHR! Cheer as much as you can for Hard Fi! We'll keep sailing. Letters of support to lazy-eye@hotmail.co.uk".

As for LMRH, Drew and his band Helsinki will most likely replace Babyshambles.

Bugger

Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty has been jailed for 14 weeks for failing to turn up to probation hearings on time and drug use.Doherty attended West London Magistrates Court today (April 8), where Judge Davinder Lachar handed the singer/guitarist the sentence.A spokesperson for the court said that Doherty had been jailed for "breach of time keeping, non-compliance of his order and using different drugs".A spokesperson for Doherty told NME.COM that he was looking into grounds for appeal.Doherty had previously been given a suspended jail sentence by Lachar for drug offences.The 14-week sentence would not only cover the singer's solo show at the Royal Albert Hall in London (April 26), but the Glastonbury (June 27-29) festival, which he is due to play.

Babyshambles news and a close encounter with Pete

From NME.com:

Babyshambles are set to release a new live CD and DVD package on June 2, NME.COM can exclusively reveal.The package, entitled 'Oh What A Lovely Tour', documents the last leg of the band's Winter 2007 arena tour - the gig in question took place at the Glasgow SECC on December 1 last year.The CD/DVD set features the full 20-song set from the band, with the DVD including music videos for 'The Blinding', 'Devlivery', 'You Talk' and 'Love You But You're Green'.The DVD was directed by Giorgio Testi, who has previously made music videos for the likes of The Good, The Bad & The Queen. It festures live footage of the band shot in saturated colours inspired by early Sex Pistols footage as well as old black and white footage of The Beatles. "I've seen it about 10 times already, it's wicked," Babyshambles bassist Drew McConnell told NME.COM. "It's great to have a document of it, to show the grandkids I wasn't always boring. And that I wasn't always a head in a jar."For full details of the release, including an exclusive Babyshambles interview, see the new issue of NME, out tomorrow (April 9).

In the meantime, Peter's parisian sojourn is temporarily over, but our friend Frenchpaulo managed to spend some time and a cigarette with him before his departure, and this is what he got:

• Peter is collaborating with a French chanteuse named Soko
• the chick in question will support him (or viceversa) at a solo gig Peter is playing in London on 10 April (Thursday) at a secret location (we'll find it out, don't worry)
• the "musical" is on the way and Peter and Carl have been having fun making up the names of the main characters: one of them is named "Tony Tocock", a mixture of Tony Hancock and Jean Cocteau
• while in Paris, staying at the legendary Libertines-famed "France Albion Hotel", Peter shot another crime movie starring himself and his muse (who strangles him and stomps all over his dead body this time!). To be seen at his usual youtube channel.

Paris au Printemps

Springtime in Paris. Peter has been spotted in La Ville Lumiere during the last weekend. Probably he will remain in France throughout April, arranging Babyshambles gigs and also the exibition of his paintings, scheduled at the galerie Chappe from 25 April to 11 May. Au revoir Pierre.

From canalstars:

Du 25 avril au 11 mai, la galerie Chappe (située dans le XVIIIe arrondissement de Paris) accueillera Pete Doherty et 32 de ses oeuvres. L'exposition "Art of Albion" permettra de se familiariser un peu plus avec l'univers morbide dans lequel évolue le leader des Babyshambles : pour ses créations, il utilise notamment son propre sang.

Libertines memorial and other stuff

Last night, on BBC Radio 1, Zane Lowe played out the Libertines first album, Up The Bracket, in full, just as the Libertines intended it to be heard. The show also contained interviews and other music to put the album's greatness into context. During the show, listeners were asked to text stories and opinions about the album, and Carl Barat phoned from somewhere. Here's the full tracklisting of the show, and here's where you can listen to the whole stuff.

And now a small reminder:

• for Camden rats: tonight the Proud Gallery Bar & Venue reopens. At: The Horse Hospital, The Stable Market, Chalk Farm Road. With: THE ENEMY *LIVE* - LETHAL BIZZLE *LIVE* - DREW (BABYSHAMBLES) *LIVE* - More TBC! And DJ sets from -Nick Grimshaw, Jodie Harsh, Friendly Fires, Lisa Moorish, Stunners, Danny Danger, Jordi Carr, Nicky Dagger.

• for snowboarding maniacs: Dirty Pretty Things are expected to play tonight at Snowbombing 2008, Mayrhofen, Austria. Don't know much about this event (I'm a bodyboarding addict, sorry), but I'm almost sure it's a gig and not a dj set (review and reports will be much appreciated of course).

Some DPT news

Dirty Pretty Things and New York Dolls and have been added to the bill at the 02 Wireless festival. They're amongst a host of additions to the July 4 date of the festival, which will be headlined by Morrissey.

Plus, DPT-forumer Linna kindly posted this snippet about the new record:

"We’re on the cusp of finally finishing this fucking record we’ve been working on for a year and a half" said bassist Didz Hammond "We’re three weeks away from delivering it. We’ll have to work out how to play the more experimental tracks, but we’re touring before the summer so we’ll have planned it out. The album’s out early June so it’ll be perfect for Reading”.

Finally, DPT are rumoured to appear at Glasto as well (but the line up will be confirmed in June).

Peter and Carl in Eastenders!!! EXCLUSIVE!!!

A Libertines musical??? You must be joking! Peter and Carl have something else in their agenda now, although of course it’s a well hidden secret at the BBC headquarters! But now we can reveal it all. After a pretty inspiring night at the launch party for the new Vodka Wiborowa at the Punk Club, a very reliable source has spilled the beans (and some vodka too). The two ex-libertines are going to star in Eastenders starting from September 2008! Peter and Carl have been spotted on the set already, taking notes and planning their acting debut. Somebody even heard Carlos whispering to Peter: “So Stan is doing The Mighty Boosh? Who fucking cares about The Mighty fucking Boosh? I’m doing fucking Eastenders!”. To which Peter allegedly whispered back: “You’re right Biggles, Stan is a spoiled brat who thinks he’s sexier than me!”. “Sexier than you?” Carl laughed “HA!”.
Pete and Carl will star in the famous soap opera playing a gay couple introduced by Christian Clarke in the Beale household. They plan to get married but on the eve of the wedding they suddenly find out with horror they can’t marry each other because they’re brothers! They’re both Dot Cotton’s secret children!
That’s all we can say for now but much more will be revealed in the next weeks. Stay tuned!!!