https://www.theguardian.com/music/2...r-singh-brexit-morrissey-music-england-garden
Extract:
"On No Rock: Save in Roll you’ll also hear a discreet sitar; this musical synthesis is everywhere in Cornershop’s back catalogue, a musical response, perhaps, to how difficult assimilation has been for them in other ways. In 1993 their first EP’s lead track, England’s Dreaming, injected indie with the spirit of protest, fusing lyrics from the Smiths’ Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now and Public Enemy (“I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour/Fight the Power!”).
This protest was about Morrissey, who had draped himself in a union jack at a Madness gig in summer 1992, when the flag was very much a symbol of the far right. He had also released controversial songs such as The National Front Disco and Bengali in Platforms, the latter addressing an immigrant to Britain wanting to assimilate (“shelve your western plans/and understand/That life is hard enough when you belong here”). Cornershop had also set fire to pictures of Morrissey outside his record company offices around their EP’s release. This was dismissed as a press stunt by some at the time, but given Morrissey’s ramping up of anti-immigrant statements over the years – including wearing a badge celebrating the far-right For Britain party on America’s Jimmy Fallon show last May – it now seems on the money.
“What’s changed now is people have this phrase, and I think it’s a lovely phrase, called ‘white privilege’,” Singh says, looking back. “That’s what Morrissey had, that ability to just continue regardless – Clapton had it too.” He’s referring to Clapton’s drunken on-stage rant in 1976, saying that Britain was “overcrowded”, and that his fans should vote for Enoch Powell. That action prompted the creation of Rock Against Racism (Clapton has since said he feels “shame” about those remarks).
“Clapton then surrounded himself with black people, and now Morrissey’s doing the same,” says Singh, meaning Motown singer Thelma Houston, with whom Morrissey duetted on his recent single, Bobby, Don’t You Think They Know? “It was hard for Cornershop to make our stand then, because we were pulling a lot of disparate things together. We couldn’t just say, look at his badge. Look at his support of Tommy Robinson.”
Extract:
"On No Rock: Save in Roll you’ll also hear a discreet sitar; this musical synthesis is everywhere in Cornershop’s back catalogue, a musical response, perhaps, to how difficult assimilation has been for them in other ways. In 1993 their first EP’s lead track, England’s Dreaming, injected indie with the spirit of protest, fusing lyrics from the Smiths’ Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now and Public Enemy (“I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour/Fight the Power!”).
This protest was about Morrissey, who had draped himself in a union jack at a Madness gig in summer 1992, when the flag was very much a symbol of the far right. He had also released controversial songs such as The National Front Disco and Bengali in Platforms, the latter addressing an immigrant to Britain wanting to assimilate (“shelve your western plans/and understand/That life is hard enough when you belong here”). Cornershop had also set fire to pictures of Morrissey outside his record company offices around their EP’s release. This was dismissed as a press stunt by some at the time, but given Morrissey’s ramping up of anti-immigrant statements over the years – including wearing a badge celebrating the far-right For Britain party on America’s Jimmy Fallon show last May – it now seems on the money.
“What’s changed now is people have this phrase, and I think it’s a lovely phrase, called ‘white privilege’,” Singh says, looking back. “That’s what Morrissey had, that ability to just continue regardless – Clapton had it too.” He’s referring to Clapton’s drunken on-stage rant in 1976, saying that Britain was “overcrowded”, and that his fans should vote for Enoch Powell. That action prompted the creation of Rock Against Racism (Clapton has since said he feels “shame” about those remarks).
“Clapton then surrounded himself with black people, and now Morrissey’s doing the same,” says Singh, meaning Motown singer Thelma Houston, with whom Morrissey duetted on his recent single, Bobby, Don’t You Think They Know? “It was hard for Cornershop to make our stand then, because we were pulling a lot of disparate things together. We couldn’t just say, look at his badge. Look at his support of Tommy Robinson.”
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