The National Front would gain 120,000 votes at local elections across London and running battles at NF rallies around the country would culminate in one of the most bellicose riots the capital has ever seen, at Lewisham in August 1977, marking the first use of police riot gear on mainland Britain, and the NF's heaviest defeat on the streets. Within months of that first Temporary Hoarding, the ratchet would turn and the temperature rise on both sides of an already raging street war. It is a big claim to stake, but it changed things. Best described as the 'Anti-Racist Movement', this was among the most cogent mass endeavours in post-war Britain, for all its shambolic effervescence. And - part-wittingly and partly because of its time - it energised a political movement. The publication emerged for an event at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London, but quickly spread through the streets and along sweaty corridors of pubs and clubs throughout the land. People may feel grateful to Bowie and Clapton for their own reasons, but perhaps the most gratifying contribution this duo made to music was to detonate the revulsion at their sentiments and clear the stage for Rock Against Racism, the first edition of whose fanzine, Temporary Hoarding, appeared on May Day 30 years ago. Yes, Clapton - who played the blues, but whose outburst in August 1976 came hot on the heels of another from David Bowie, proclaiming Adolf Hitler to be 'the first rock star' and urging that what Britain needed was a 'right-wing dictatorship'. It's much heavier, man.' Not some ranting nutcase from the National Front, but an inebriated Eric Clapton (now CBE), formerly of Cream and latterly of Hello! magazine. I used to be into dope, now I'm into racism. 'Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Vote for Enoch Powell,' came the counsel from a stage in the West Midlands.
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