In Lieu

Some music... Regular Fries was a brilliant but very erratic late 90s fringe band. Their best release was a 5 track EP called Free the Regular Fries, which was an extended hypnosis tape that namechecked Where's Wally, Tariq Ali and Helen of Troy. This is off their debut album though: Dream Lottery.

Speaking of which, here's something I wrote a little while ago based on Dream Lottery. I suppose it's other title would be Lower State of Consciousness:

Tonight was the big draw, the dream lottery. Not just the usual prize, millions of pounds, not money but something truly life changing. Anticipation had been building for weeks, ever since the lottery had been announced.

Some said that the prize was the secret to eternal youth. Others suggested it was the key to inner peace. There were those who said they were in the know, who were sure it was the night when alien life would suddenly make itself known to mankind. Some people, rather dull, said it was just a billion pounds. There were many theories.

It was said everyone could play. In fact everyone did. Sure enough, tickets reached every last adult settled on the map. No matter how remote or how inaccessible (or how dangerous the journey) these little tickets arrived three days before the draw. They were little slips in white and black dots, with gold lettering and an eight-figure number, each unique.

Over the days and weeks excitement built and built until, at the allotted hour, the population gathered round the nearest TV for the big moment. The programme turned. On the screen appeared a man. He was unctuous, well groomed, handsome and middle-aged, dressed in a fine suit. He spoke and, funnily enough, no matter where anyone came from or what his or her first language happened to be, he was understood.

“Welcome to tonight’s grand draw. I hope you are all comfortable at home, watching your TV screens. Let the dream lottery commence”.

The man then withdrew from shot. All the people could see was a man and a woman, each lying naked on their own table with electrodes attached to their body. The camera scanned across them. They seemed calm enough, although quickly it became clear something, some current was passing through them. Their bodies twitched gently. They would lift their arms from time to time, twitch their toes, and make grunting or sighing noises.

The man and woman then stood. The woman started saying prayers from the Torah while the man sang passages from the Koran. After a while they switched to Christian and Hindu passages. On they went through every religion and further into all the scientific and philosophical credos.

Their voices duplicated and multiplied. They became more and more breathy and passionate until, depending on the viewers’ perspective, there was a sudden orgasmic dissolution and the audience dived straight into their brains. They leapt across synapses; each pulse was a delirious pleasure. The physical regions of the mind became like continents, with mountain ranges, rivers, beaches, oceans, some deserts, some forests, some rolling grasslands.

In the centre of each continent was a great lake. The viewer would peer into the lake. The lake was teeming with life, frogs, fish, flowers, insects and so on. But, looking deeper they could see what looked like building blocks, circles and triangles, rods and cones, swirling about in apparent chaos. The blocks gathered until they formed a twisting staircase, a double helix.

The viewers went down into the helix, down until they reached the level of shivering atoms. Within each atom they could see a star. Around each star were planets, multicoloured and infinitely varieties. As the helix grew a star would be born in a flash of light.

There was a rush, a sudden violent change of context. The viewers could see a small cat dragging her kittens to a safe corner of downtown Hiroshima, a dog trotting through the bullet raked streets of St Petersburg, a fox snaking past a camp on the outskirts of Auschwitz, an eagle nesting opposite Cape Canaveral, a songbird on a windowsill in Abbey Road.

The perpective sped outwards. Venus shed its skin, boiling over in a planet wide flood. Mars also split, revealing the Valles Marineris and Olympus Mons. Jupiter ducked inward sending Neptune into a death dive, past Uranus, into the depths of the solar system.

Further out they went, back to the staratoms. This time they were meshing together, making molecules, bonding into a crystalline structure. The bonds flexed and the molecules expanded into a vapour. The vapour fell like rain on the viewers’ faces. Gentle wind flicked through their hair, the whistling sound of leaves. The moon was full. It was a well-lit night.

The camera panned up, then down and in an indeterminate direction. After what seemed like an aching pause there was a plunge into terminal black. Then the unctuous, well-groomed, handsome middle-aged man reappeared. He said:

“I’m sorry there were no winners tonight. Please tune in next week”.

Shrewd but dull...

Anti-fascism is the foremost political struggle today. Nothing is as important. Nothing occupies people’s minds as much.

What we mean by political struggle is the conflict between distinct outlooks based in society for hegemony over the rest of society. Though there are many intermediate moments, in the last instant we talk about class.

We are right to insist that anti-fascism is autonomous. To be active against the nazis you do not have to break with any perspective except racism. But this is not as simple as it seems. Everybody is officially anti-racist, from the press to the police and even to modern fascists, who deny their roots in public.

Autonomous does not mean separate. Whilst keeping any anti-fascist organisation open there are a number of simple points we should argue consistently, not only to keep such a coalition honest and active but develop the movement around it.

(1) The cutting edge of modern racism is Islamophobia. This means active hatred of Muslims in general but in particular Muslims from the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent. The ruling class generated this hatred in order to prosecute the War on Terror, an ongoing drive to force the global balance in favour of Western Power, in particular American Power. The nazis have used this drive to legitimise and build their organisation and support. Anti-fascists should combat Islamophobia whoever propagates it.

(2) The mainstream parties are all formally anti-racist. This is the reason their members and supporters can be called on participate in anti-fascist activity. They all angle after official power, however. British support for American Power is all but constitutionally encoded. This means all the mainstream parties will participate in the current war drive, including the ideological drive, i.e. they will propagate Islamophobia. This means a permanent political formation outside the mainstream consensus with a basis in anti-racism and anti-fascism is needed.

(3) Connected to point (2): just as the broader issue of racism is a structural problem (everyone is anti-racist yet racism persists). Support for American Power is embedded in British Power. There must be at the very least a significant shift in the political paradigm to change this fact. This implies support for radical, ultimately transcendent political aims: anti-capitalism.

News plus comments

Crank the old machine up, oh yes. Alistair Darling will ask the Masters of the Universe to cut their bonuses (there's this conference of lame ducks, damp squibs and ships that have already sailed going on). The common response has been, "are Labour still in government, how did that happen?"

Even Peter Mandelson's mind is beginning to wander. Check out this quote:

Asked whether he might use his experience in business and world trade to fulfil a public role under a future government led by David Cameron, he said: "If I was asked to do something for my country using that asset base, of course, I would consider it."

Gizza job, eh? This from the party that brought you:

To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.

Meanwhile, in t'abroad, there's a battle starting in California over the full legalisation production and consumption of marijuana. It is already legal in several states to consume said drug for medicinal purposes.

The Beeb naturally produce pro and anti legalisation voices, both of whom directly contradict each other. Of course they weight it so that the antis seem not only more reasonable but more powerful (Auntie loves power and so should you).

Marijuana probably won't be legalised just yet. Points like this, however, might tip the balance in the long run:

California state authorities estimate marijuana could bring in nearly $1.5bn a year in much needed tax revenue if it were legalised.

They could do with the money right now.

Meanwhile, mass walkout in the California higher education system. Well done everyone who too part.

And finally, if you go down to the G20 beware, you may get abducted from off the streets:

All-out strikes win

This one has. This one can. Spread the word.

More on the nazis

Nazi Richard Barnbrook has been suspended from the GLA for bringing it into disrepute... and a damn good thing he has too. He was caught spreading what's politely called misinformation about murders in Barking.

In September last year Barnbrook claimed there had been three murders in Barking in as many weeks when it turned there had been none. An aside: he blames the incident on apparent dyslexia. I don't know how his nazi heroes would have looked upon dyslexia, being, of course, a biological condition. Hardly suitable for the master race... but, anyhow.

I spent an interesting day with some UAF supporters chasing the bastard round City Hall. One thing I'd note, an impression, BNP members seem even more lumpen than the EDL franchise.

It's got me thinking about the whole anti-nazi thing again. We have spent several months emphasising the autonomy of anti-fascist and anti-racist politics. The BNP vote is not simply an ex-Labour protest vote. The BNP take votes from all three mainstream parties. Their selling point is racism (not the prospect of jobs or homes or sugar and spice and all things nice), and their supporters understand this.

But, let's get back to the long game. In living memory we have seen the break down of two ruling class compacts with society, Butskellism and Blatcherism. Though the ruling class is far from exhausted, it has opened up huge scope for alternative politics, to the left and the right of the mainstream. Whereas after the war the two mainstream parties could expect to gather 90-95% of the total vote, in some modern elections they barely harvest 50% of the votes cast. That, of course, doesn't include the many, many people who don't vote.

The fascists are looking to get out of their well patrolled ghetto. Their strategy has been Eurofascism. They have tried to cultivate a broad but shallow base of support and slowly harden that support up. Richard Barnbrook's supposedly dyslexic statements about knife crime are an example of this.

They've got a problem. Their support is still very passive. The BNP can still only round up piddling numbers (and what human dust they are!) to support their key man in the London Assembly. What's more their support still has to go over to overt and violent racism, which is still largely unacceptable. Something in the region of 1-2% of the population are stated supporters of the BNP. We must create a new and refreshed culture of anti-racism in the other 98%.

Press Release

The long-awaited awesome brand new Buzz Kill album will released on October 32nd. Speculation is rife, after this summer's gigs, as to what's made the final cut. But we can now reveal the tracklisting for Mom, Why Did You Stop My Trust Fund:

I Tried To Slit My Wrists... But Missed
Puppies In A Pond
I Hope You Die Before I'm Old
Allergic To Food
Beaten At Shadow Boxing
Teacher Shat On My Salad
Where's My Keychain
The One With The Short Title That Wasn't
Rage Against Something Or Other
The Guilt Is So Expensive
Too Fat To Skate, Too Thin To Sing

With a special Europe-Asia-SouthAmerica-Australia-Africa only bonus track:

Mom, Why Did You Stop My Trust Fund? (Goddamn Arseface remix)

Just thinking...

Bob Crowe is a self-appointed champion of the working class. Hugo Chavez is a self-styled socialist revolutionary. These were two adjectives applied by two separate journalists. Actually they are both elected champions, but that’s by the by.

Two turds don’t make a midden, but I’m sure there are others floating about. Even so I think it's indicative of an important mainstream political stance. All political initiative is suspect, especially if it aims to make the world in any way a better place.

There are three mental props I can think of for this argument. First, all revolutions lead to tyranny. This is important to have in the back of your mind at all times. In the case of Hugo Chavez it’s very important. Hugo Chavez is a tyrant. You don’t have to prove or qualify that assertion at all. He is a self-styled socialist revolutionary. He is guilty. He does 6-hour TV broadcasts. You don’t even need to speak the lingo; it’s obvious vainglorious ranting.

Bob Crowe holds commuters to ransom. What a bully. The executive of TFL is never a bully, nor the bosses of the train companies, nor Boris Johnson, and only one of those can claim to be remotely elected. Railway workers standing up for themselves constitutes bullying.

The parameters of the system are the parameters of reform. There is so little room for progressive change that anyone proposing such a thing is a fool or an extremist and probably a revolutionary. Have you ever noticed how revolutionaries always conspire to take over democratic organisations? They don’t ever stand on open platforms and get clearly elected, oh no.

Another prop is the notion that all politicians are corrupt. This idea is much easier to propagate if all revolutions lead to tyranny. If there is no alternative, and there isn’t, the plain truth will simply turn people off politics. This is a technocrat’s dream. All they want to do is be left alone to govern. An interesting note: campaigners who consistently target an individual or group in public life can be arrested under laws designed to protect victims of stalking.

The last prop that occurs is similar to the first. New and non-mainstream initiatives are the work of minorities. We are told we live in a democracy where the majority wins out. MPs go to parliament with majorities. Party leaders go to the Queen with majorities.

They have no such thing, really. A candidate can win an election with 10,000 votes, so long as every other candidate has 9,999 votes. The majority in the House of Commons bears no relation to the breakdown in votes across the country. No government in living memory has ever gathered 50% of the vote cast, let alone 50% support from the voting population.

The mainstream parties are themselves organised minorities. The largest political organisation ever seen was the Labour Party, which at it height had roughly 1 million members. Organised minorities are crucial to democracy.

Founding an organisation or movement, is in the beginning, an act of will and presumption that stands or falls upon how it connects with the wider population. Whatever you think of them both Bob Crowe and Hugo Chavez have a pretty solid basis to claim they are champions of a cause.

The changing definition of guilt

Law is something that we are taught to treat as clear and absolute. Once anyone tangles with the legal system they find its a protean idea, very hard to define (if you don't accept the position that law is codified power) and very easy to subvert.

The war on terror has done immense damage to recieved notions of justice. Once you can treat someone suspected of terrorist activities as effectively guilty and issue a control order, a virtual prison sentence, why stop there? Why not apply this principle to other potential criminals?

There is a new phrase in law enforcement circles, although it is more about enforcing the state's prejudice than any law. It is the Potential Dangerous Person, or PDP. This label is given by Northumberland and Cleveland police forces to someone who is suspected of crimes but who has not been charged, let alone found guilty of an offence. Under this new designation they will be targeted as criminals, watched and no doubt harassed...

Mike Creedon, assistant director of Country Durham Probation Service, is quoted revealingly in the Durham Times as saying, "You have to balance the human rights of the offender with the human rights of the potential victim in the community." You see, in Creedon's world, someone worthy of his suspicion is automatically termed an offender.

Quite...

Film bio of Charles Darwin fails to find distributor in the US

Because it is too controversial for Americans to watch, which actually means too controversial for American companies to distribute... but never mind. Who ever will read these words that have an interest in said film's success? Ignoring the obvious point about the debased nature of American political discourse, one slightly strange comment worthy of comment is that the film was "even handed and wise". Of course films that are based on real, historical figures have to be even handed and wise. The context they are placed in has to be fair and accurate.

But there is no need to be even handed about the breakthrough of the theory of evolution by natural selection. It is a key foundation for our current understanding of the world. Even with all the additions and emendations that are being made, the theory is vital as it sets out the context within which future research and insight can take place. It is still in many ways a revolutionary theory.

It is not hard to find contrasts between grand, new theories and the people who bore them. Darwin was intended to be trained as a vicar. Newton was an alchemist and biblical hermeneutic. Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, was a priest, as was Angelo Secchi, employed by the Vatican as an astronomer. He discovered a great deal about the sun and other stars, including their different colours. This was a key observation which led to the discovery of the eventual fate of the sun.

It is another expression of Gramsci's priceless observation that a person's theory and practice often oppose each other. The question then becomes whether consciousness is critically revived and revised.

Downloaded the Street Sweeper Album, have been listening to it for the last couple of days

This is the highlight:



Beautiful senses of alienation and a genuine class awareness. Anyway, this is a band that won't mind you downloading their album, so off you go.


Sorry for fucking up the sidebar, Roobin.

Nazi scum humiliated in Harrow

Well I had a fantastic evening. In Harrow yesterday, UAF supporters, socialists and trade unionists along with thousands of black, white and asian youth from the local area joined worshippers at Harrow Central Mosque to defend it from the Nazis of the English Defence League.

Make no mistake about it, the EDL was attempting to march to a mosque in one of London's most multicultural areas (an area where I lived for the first 18 years of my life, which has very large Muslim, Jewish and Hindu communities but where racial tensions have been pretty much non-existent for decades), outside Friday prayers at the breaking of the fast on 11 September - a reprehensible attempt to link the muslim community with the acts of 9/11. But the Nazis couldn't get anywhere near. Where the cops had tried to set up cordons for 2 sets of opposing demonstrators, in fact the anti-fascist demo grew to such a size that it was able to ignore these cordons and occupy the main road (when we chant 'Whose streets? Our streets!', this is what we're talking about). The few dozen (being very generous) Nazis who tried to turn up ran away very quickly and spent most of the evening holed up in a pub, being protected by the police.

Yesterday was a show of strength from our side. The Nazis are unlikely to try marching on a mosque in anywhere like Harrow (let alone somewhere like Southall) again in the near future, such was the scale of their defeat. Moreoever, the involvement of organised socialists was absolutely critical in supplying a political focus to the demo, firmly placing it in the context of anti-fascism and anti-racism. This is strategically important. Had it just been local muslims present, groups such as the Al-Mahajaroun could quite easily have attempted to win a position that all white people are against the muslims. In reality we saw a united force of black and white, standing firm against the fash and against police attempts to spark a riot - charging on a couple of occasions and using what looked and smelled like tear gas (although this was unconfirmed).

This was also a useful learning experience for the local muslim youth present. Many of them will have been on their first demo (although it's likely some also protested against the masscare in Gaza in January). They'll have learned that socialists and anti-fascists will stand alongside them, will help them defend their communities. They'll also have learned how provocative the police can be in these situations (although again they are likely to have been experiencing racist violence and intimidation from the cops for years, so I'm not going to slate them for geting fired up and having a bit of a go back). It doesn't follow from this that they are automatically won to left-wing politics. It does show them that they are not alone, and that we will stand side-by-side with them when they are under attack.

One thing I would say. The only socialist group represented in any numbers was the SWP, and while there were delegations from Unite, NUT, PCS and a couple of others, the turnout from the unions was not big enough. This is something we need to work on, to ensure the biggest possible show of strength when the nazis try to march. Overall though, I'm delighted.

On the nazis

The BBC have extended an invite to the BNP to speak on Question Time. This has been discussed and dissected elsewhere. Quite naturally there has been a great uproar, nazis on TV. The most common reaction on the internet, a plurality of the responses, has been something along the lines of "we must defeat them in rational debate/give them enough rope/banning them is just as fascist". I paraphrase.

It's a tribute to how downy and peaceful our society became, or at least appeared to many, that young, liberal-minded people seriously today think that political matters are resolved by reasoned debate. It's still quite a leap to imagine that a party that wants to physically eliminate whole chunks of the population can be reasoned with.

This is a crucial point. The BNP is not a normal party. They cannot and do not try to appeal to the broad population when they speak. Take the example of Nick Griffin calling for immigrant boats to be sunk. You can point out not only how horrific this notion is but also the logical inconsistencies.

There is really no such thing as an immigrant boat, at least on a commercial scale. There are frequently boats with immigrants travelling on them, passenger and freight. It is impossible to tell these apart from other ships. Even if this policy was remotely tolerable it's hardly practical. It's also totally illegal. Ships fly under national flags and are protected by law. Attacking a ship would amount to piracy or a declaration of war.

But Griffin isn't interested in this. Most people who heard this statement were doubtless repelled. Some probably weren't. They would be selected and hardened by this statement. Griffin's immediate, tactical aim is to legitimise violence against "immigrants", by which he means ethnic minorities. By giving him the chance to speak on TV he gets a little closer to his goal.

Nick Griffin should not be allowed access to the mass media.

Buzz Kill

Hi England... we're... Buzz Kill, we're from, like, California and... we've come to... play a show... We hope you, y'know, like it and stuff...

We'd like to, like, start off with some... songs off our album Mom, Why Did You Stop My Trust Fund. This one's all about being really... pissed off. It's called I Tried To Slit My Wrists... But Missed.

Aren't we being just as fascist by opposing Nick Griffin's right to appear on telly?

Uh... no? I don't often toot my own horn (oo err) but I did like my list of ruined words and phrases. Since its coining, the words "fascism" and "fascist" have, ironically, been the most etomologically abused.

Endless Nameless or The Victor Surge

The British are hopeless. They are the worst people on earth. They mostly deserve their slavery.

Arguably the last time the British were truly radical in any sense it took saturation bombing (and the energetic exposure of their rulers sympathies for the saturation bombers) to rouse them to some kind of consciousness. What was the end result of that movement, who became the embodiment? Clement Atlee became HM Prime Minister not even Nye Bevan but Clement Atlee, a man with much to be modest about.

Culture is conservative. The richer and older it is the more conservative it is, and the harder it is for new ideas to flourish. British people are very cultured, they are almost more media literate that actually literate.

There is very little in mass culture that appears new to a British mind. They are not shocked by gore or dazzled by GCI. Play a piece of music, any music, and the instinctive reaction is to compare it to something else. What’s the most common colour of a British home? Outside it’s off-white, grey or beige. Inside it’s… off-white, grey or beige. The outward sign of a good neighbourhood is one where homes and streets would fit in suburbs from Plymouth to Inverness.

You get the picture. Of course, this is broadly true of most western culture, but I wouldn’t mind betting it’s especially true of Britain. The genuinely new bounces of most people like peas on a snare drum. I don’t know much but I know what I like.

Genuinely revolutionary concepts, such as solidarity and distinct class identity have driven out of many minds. The keepers of mass consciousness will defend this gain (as they see it) to the bitter end.

The left is divided. I would opine most of the tears shed amounts to soap-opera emotion. The left is divided, especially so in Britain. It is a fact of life. A unified class is a class ready to conquer and lead the rest of society, i.e. be the ruling class.

But, if we face such a daunting task, up against such a powerful enemy our message needs to carry further, we need more people. Perhaps these ‘more people’ come through a broad left. I think we should call shenanigans on this argument. It is bollocks and should be called so.

For one thing no one ever gets to the bottom of what a broad left is. It’s usually dressed up with sugar sprinkles: plural, grass roots, community based, built from the bottom up. Who can object to these things? Often, when the punch comes, it’s delivered with “the division between reform and revolution is no longer relevant”.

The Italian poet Fausto Bertinotti (remember him?) was fond of pointing out revolutionaries seem unable to deliver revolutions while reformists no longer win reforms. This is true, sort of, but we should do better than that. Notions of reform or revolution are not simply things but processes.

Most importantly they imply different attitudes toward politics. Reformers want change on behalf of someone. Revolutionaries want that someone to carry out change themselves (this is also why someone’s being revolutionary can be defined very widely).

Given how dense and difficult our struggle is, what sense is there in trying to organise the majority? We must never turn down the challenge of trying to win a whole union to radical action, but why would we rely on it? Why not propagate the idea of solidarity, across grades and workplaces, even industries? Then we can set the minority in motion and call upon the majority to back them.

So many of today’s intractable problems are only intractable because people see with tired eyes, think with jaded minds. A great nugget of good sense coming from the anti-war movement was that “we marched against the war but nothing happened…” I summarise. We perhaps fought too hard against that idea in the struggle to sustain the anti-war movement.

So let’s not pretend to be reformists in an effort to win a few over. Let’s organise the broad, revolutionary minority. These are the people who look, either consistently or on a case-by-case basis, beyond the legal and constitutional ways of fighting back. Which post workers want to launch a national unofficial strike? Which students want to bypass the corrupt NUS? Who doesn’t just want to lobby the Labour Party conference (when it’s not even meeting), but shut it down?

All glory!

You like Mars?

Here's your Mars. For those of you interested in my musing on contingency in history please be patient... or find something else to do.

Newsburp

It seems were not out of the sillyseason yet. Headline: Police surprised that few people are willing to protest a lame-duck government in its final year. Dun, dun, duh! Also of interest:

With 21 days to go until the conference begins, Wilson said there had been little sign of organised protests preparing to lobby the governing party.

He said police had attempted to contact groups through new media to discuss their plans for the conference, not to "stop protests" but to enable them to take place as smoothly as possible.

They'll be knocking on our front doors next. Given what's happened this year during the Gaza and G20 demos I'm surprised anyone would talk to the police that much.

Muslim community leader arrested after BNP attack claims. He's accused of perverting the course of justice. More we don't know. Let's not forget, though, that Jean Charles de Menezes was a rapist, Mohammed Abdul Kahar had child porn, Harry Stanley said "stick 'em up"... you get my point. Keep an eye on this story.

Surprised I didn't notice this a couple of months ago

More here

Thoughts of Reading

Of? On? I went to the Reading Festival after volunteering my services to Barnet TUC... and I wasn't above making the joke about there being no peace and quiet for any reading. In the process the TUC delegation did come up with a series of Harry Potter follow-up books (Harry Potter and the Enchanted Toaster, Harry Potter and the Spreadsheet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Fridge Magnet of Doom... etc). Also, I will let you on to my new fictional band, Buzz Kill later, but for now...

Other observations include that festival-goers revert to a childlike state. Children are dumb, energetic and don't look where they are running. The difference is, of course, between a headbutt in the thigh and an elbow in the gut. Ow!

More fots, the festival seemed to have been slung together without an abiding theme. There are two general styles abroad. One is indie-disco with added synths, from the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs to Editors seem to be hopping that ride. Unless they're in the chugging, semi-emo production rock groove. There was a lot of that shit at Reading. One thing is clear, that unites both styles; lo-fi, retro sounds are far out. Keeping it real was so 90s.

The best two sets of the weekend were by two bands that fit neither category. The Temper Trap filled The Republic tent on the Friday afternoon. They appeared totally earnest, raw and deeply in love with what they do. The singing wasn't so subtle (though the singer has a fascinating voice) and they have no stage charisma, but Sweet Disposition raised the roof:

a moment, a love
a dream, aloud
a kiss, a cry
our rights, our wrongs

The other great set was by the Maccabees. Their music is genuinely emotional and benefited from a beautiful sunset slot.

The great mystery of the festival is why Lethal Bizzle was stuck in a minor tent, when he could have easily carried the main stage. Hip-hop nights are effectively banned in London. Lethal Bizzle has found a way a unique round the prohibition. He played to the crowd, using Clash, Nirvana and House of Pain samples, stuff they'd understand, and the crowd repaid him in kind. I might be projecting, but thousands of young, mostly white kids were chuffed to have a hip-hop artist come and play for them.