(From Linton Kwesi Johnson's epic 1979 album 'Forces of Victory')

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher had come to power, and was busy putting any and various to the sword. Punk was gaining notoriety, both as a music genre and a 'lifestyle' with the Sex Pistols, The Damned and others attacking the sensibilities of cozy middle-England which Thatcher embodied. More threatening perhaps, the National Front (a extreme right-wing Fascist group) was beginning to flex its obnoxious muscles in the inner cities; there were numerous clashes between it and the left-wing Anti-Nazi League all over the country. Amidst all of that comes Linton 'Kwesi' Johnson, a young dub poet from south London who chronicled the racial, political and urban situation with deft lyrics and teeth-vibrating bass :o). This song is about the discriminatory nature of the notorious Sus Law (or the stop-and-search on suspicion of committing a crime where the suspicion was nothing more than the colours of the arrestee's skin ...) I was lucky enough to see LKJ in concert in early 1980 and his riddims and poems were not only brilliant but supremely danceable. Happily, his music is as good to listen to now as it was thirty years ago :o)

The week before Chrimble and almost the only post I get is blinkin' credit card and bank statements, and unsolicited bumff from my ISP ...ho hummm....

Saturday 19th's bricks-and-mortar-shaking-inna-dubwise-stylee entry to the Challenge; click here for other geometrically-challenged Pbasers this month