Rumour and hysteria abound at the cancellation of the Reggae in The Park bash.
The organisers have released this statement:
Due to the recent negative publicity surrounding reggae music in the UK press, no suitable alternative venue could be found that was willing to take on the perceived security risk represented by “Reggae In The Park”. Therefore it is with sadness that the organisers have had to announce the cancellation of this event.
Which is a bit weird, to say the least.
The “negative publicity” was largely concentrated on Beenie Man, who was not due to appear. Sizzla and Vybz Cartel were due to make an appearance, however alongside a cast of others, none of whom are known for expressing violent homophobia on record (Marcia Griffiths, and Gregroy Isaacs, for example!)
Certainly, Outrage had requested that the organisers remove the Sizzla and Vybz from the bill:
Over the last few days, OutRage! had urged the promoters, Capital Radio/Choice FM and Apollo Entertainments/The Glen Yearwood Group, to drop the two singers � or face protests.
OutRage! also contacted the Mayor Ken Livingstone, the Metropolitan Police and the concert venue managements – first Tower Hamlets council (when the event was scheduled to be in Victoria Park), then Wembley Arena (when it was moved there).
At no point did OutRage! call for Reggae in the Park to be cancelled; only for the withdrawal of Vybz Kartel and Sizzla.
�We are delighted that Sizzla Kalonji and Vybz Kartel will not be performing, but sorry the whole event has been axed,� said Peter Tatchell of OutRage!
�OutRage! has no objection to the other performers in the stage line up and believes the concert should have gone ahead without the two murder-music singers.
�Reggae is an important musical genre which has made a positive contribution to popular culture. We want to see it thrive, but without homophobia and misogyny�, he said.
At best, cancelling the festival looks like an over-reaction.
However, an article in the Hackney Gazette shows that the festival had to be moved from its original venue in Victoria Park, to Wembley Arena because of technical reasons including “problems with the power supply and with accommodating the large soundsystems.”
So what is happening? Did the organisers realise that Vybz and Sizzla were too much of a draw to prevent the event making money if they were dropped? Were the screw ups with Victoria Park a factor? Do venue owners or the cops really think that a peaceful protest by Outrage is sufficient reason for the event to be pulled? Is all the bluff and bluster about the bad press which reggae has received just a way of covering up other issues?
One result of all of this has been a certain amount of hysteria from reggae fans who feel their music is being attacked, rather than particular elements within it. I feel that this is an overreaction and the fault of the cancellation of the festival has to lie with the organisers and not with Outrage.
Having said that, I do have my differences with Outrage’s tactics. As I said elsewhere:
I think that the difficulty with the approaches used so far to try and combat homophobia in dancehall is that they are only really engaging with the outskirts of the problem – people who express homophobia on records released by major labels in the UK.
This is understandable – those records are the ones which people hear – or rather, hear about.
Plus, you would think that major labels would be more responsive to pressure from activists than small labels releasing 7 inches in Jamaica, which only reach specialist shops here.
Thing is, it doesn’t work. We have the examples of Shabba and Buju from 15 years ago. They might get dropped from their labels, or they might not. But it doesn’t change the homophobia in dancehall and it doesn’t do anything to address the homophobia in jamaica, or in jamaican communities elsewhere.
The best result you are going to get from this is someone like Buju Banton who no longer makes public homophobic statements. There is no evidence to suggest that he’s renounced homophobia, and we can therefore conclude that he’s basically been muzzled.
The dynamics of this are interesting, if we perhaps take Buju’s view for a minute (but no longer than that!) – an artist who sings about oppression, and the legacy of colonialism and racism, is embraced by europeans for speaking out about some elements of corruption, but condemned for speaking about (what he considers to be) others – indeed his livelihood is threatened by doing so.
You can see why Buju might consider this to be yet more oppression – which in some ways confirms his view of western society’s corruption and decadence, which is more reason to stay close to your home crowd and chant down babylon.
I’m no apologist for homophobia, but I think you have to look wider than calling for some records to be banned.
What is needed is something which addresses the causes of homophobia in jamaica itself, which actually changes people’s views. Activists and dancehall fans in the UK can have some influence on that, but it’s going to take much more creativity and imagination than has been used so far, and it will take a long time.
Between now and then there will be a series of moral outrages when this keeps happening.
Dan http://molexroots.com
Those Outrage! obsessors should change their way of thinking. The change would make their life easier (albeit it boring wihtout having to reign fire down on dancehall’s best performers) and how life more enjoyable. “Sticks and stones”. That’s all Outrage! has to say. On another note, who are they to say that a whole island’s belief is wrong? In a way, it’s just more oppression for the Jamaicans. First with the introduction of visas, now they get punished for the rastafarian take on the Bible. Christ almighty… Why can’t people just get on with their lives? This ‘homophobia’ is only offensive to the gay community if they Want it to be. It’s not like I’d ever go to a dancehall concert (although I’d like to), but for the artists and fans who do participate, it gets old hearing the same “possible offensive lyrics”. I don’t go around telling Outrage! to shut their mouths because I believe homosexuality is wrong. I’ve had enough of this nonsense. Rawr. (I hope you can delete this from the “Conflict – Gathering of the 5000” post. Sorry!)
2004/08/29 @ 02:02 pm
mms ( / )
i’ve been told that shabbas hardocore fanbase really stopped buying his records when he apologied to gay activists about his outburst on the world, reecoing the rather literal take on the bible that many jamaicans and indeed people in general believe .
this stuff has been a big topic amongst me and several friends this week, some people saying, well they spout this stuff and it’s not wanted ,and others saying well, it’s just another example of overzealous censorship leading to alienation and less fun.
But then again lyrics about putting batty men on the end of ropes is quite chilling, even to a straight man like me.
Lyrics about shooting gay men with bazookas raise a bit of a smile though.
as do verses that cover tian charles’ love to love
2004/08/29 @ 07:59 pm
mms ( / )
sorry i was in a rush .. his outburst on the word not the world , and shooting gay men with bazookas is just funny cos a bazooka is so ott it ‘s ridiculous.
2004/08/29 @ 09:09 pm
name ( / )
I think it’s fair enough if gay people don’t like lyrics which say that they should be violently killed, personally. Particularly if you look at the way that gay people are treated in JA, where it is illegal to be gay and people are unable to be honest about their sexuality and feelings, for the most part. This sort of violent bigotry does also exist to some extent in the UK.
The issue for me is whether Outrage’s strategy is the best one, not whether they are right to stand up against homophobia.
Dan, do you actually believe “homosexuality is wrong”?
2004/08/30 @ 01:24 pm
John Eden
MMS – I think there is a discussion to be had about the role of bragging in dancehall – and indeed whether censorship is the right approach. Fact is you can’t go into HMV and see a wall display of records which say jews should be gassed or whatever… and I don’t think you should be able to personally, but I wouldn’t ask the govt to intervene if that was the case – it would have to be a grassroots ting.
that post above is me as well – me computer has tossed me cookies!
2004/08/30 @ 01:28 pm
name johneffay ( / )
Dan, if ‘people just got on with their lives’ as you suggest, there would still be slave plantations in Jamaica.
2004/08/30 @ 02:25 pm
Dan http://molexroots.com
Hey, I rushed that comment, was at work. Nah, I don’t believe homosexuality is wrong as such. I know I don’t believe it is the rightpath for me because I know what I want, a wife and kids. Also, I don’t find men attractive, hehe. I don’t like to see prejudice against anyone but I don’t think what Outrage! are saying is serious as they’re making it out to be. Maybe I’ll have more of a problem with what the dancehall artists are saying when it gets serious. My guess is, it’ll calm down for a while due to gigs being cancelled. I’m in over my head, keep an eye on my computer while I bog wash myself.
2004/08/30 @ 03:08 pm
lex
The BBC2 history of reggae programme was repeated on BBC3/4 over the weekend and covered the whole Shabba incident. Buju has certainly been muzzled but made it clear he had not changed his views. It doesn’t stop Jools Holland having him on TV though.
As for Reggae In The Park, I reckon it was cancelled for commercial reasons. Don’t you have to contribute to policing costs for events like this? Also insurance etc. But if you dropped Sizzla and VYbz Kartel, I reckon you’d have a much smaller audience.
2004/08/31 @ 08:30 am
mms ( / )
me too, but not to sound too much like a dad about it, if you’re gonna censor the music, then surely just getting some sort of agreement with the artists not to actually do those lyrics is more apropriate i think, it at least allows some kind of thought and alternative.
also with the bragging thing, yep, alot of the lyrics are clash lines, they’re coded threats to soundboys as much as anything else.
2004/08/31 @ 12:00 pm
martin ( / )
Maybe Outrage could issue some info on the actual legal circumstances in JA, how prevalent homophobia is, why the music is considered a more important factor than other Jamaican media outlets (which I know nothing about) – cos when I went on the OR website, all I saw was “stop these wicked musicians, this is unthinkable” and not a great deal else.
Talking about censorship always gets complicated, we’re back to the ‘can records influence you to do something’ argument. In which case, if some thicko’s gonna attack gays, I just can’t believe it would take a TOK track to push them over the edge. And in which case, anyone who’d listened to Whitehouse would probably qualify for the sex offenders’ register
Listening to anti-‘battyboy’ tunes yesterday at King Tubby’s, while the MC bigged up the sunshine and called for ‘niceness’ when a group of kids charged thru the crowd, was surreal in a way. I didn’t see anyone seething with hatred, but just getting off on the vibe – the anti-gay stuff just seemed like a backdrop to the tune, not the main selling point.
I wonder if Outrage should try to communicate directly with the actual artists? For a start, it’ll stop them being seen as some decadent ‘youth corrupters’, hiding behind the police and pulling the strings to stop events like this, as if they were some shadowy masonic sect. Sure, it’s potentially entering a lion’s den, but a two-way dialogue seems to me a more realistic approach than trying to airbrush out certain individuals and expecting things to automatically change.
2004/08/31 @ 12:16 pm
lex
They did a brief season of 10 minute shows on Channel 4 called “Stuck In a Lift With…” some years ago, where two people with opposing views were stuck in a set designed like a lift. Peter Tatchell had to to defend his policy on outing public figures to Matthew Parris in one show.
I say bring it back and put Tatchell and Sizzla in a lift to discuss it.
2004/08/31 @ 12:49 pm
mms ( / )
it’s not as if all the artists do is base their entire show and career around threats to gays as well.
i recall a programme years and years ago when the “boom bye bye” track was out at a nyc gay club where people were dancing to the track, and the programme maker basically told the dj the song was about shooting gays and he was shocked and said he had no idea, it hadn’t registered but he said the rhythm was good anyways.
2004/08/31 @ 02:09 pm
Dan http://molexroots.com
Best way to look at it, innit?
2004/08/31 @ 03:29 pm
paul “the mover” meme http://blog.grievousangel.net
The killing of gay activists in Jamaica is one reason why Outrage target homophobia in Jamaican reggae:
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20040610T000000-0500_61018_OBS_GAY_RIGHTS_ACTIVIST_STABBED_TO_DEATH.asp
Unfortunately Outrage’s tactics treat only the symptom of Jamaican homophobia not its cause. The factors that underly Jamaican homophobia are colonial attitudes to sexuality enforced through slavery, and the fundamentalist Christian churches in Jamaica, which play a far greater role in the sustaining of homophobia in Jamaica than reggae.
In targeting reggae Outrage only succeeds in attacking one of the few outlets for economic growth and cultural pride that poor Jamaicans have. It gets headlines for Outrage but it can only damage (and patronise) the people they are say they are trying to communicate with. I don’t trust or support Outrage’s motives or tactics in this case.
2004/08/31 @ 10:40 pm
John
pretty articulate for someone with a new baby, Paul!
2004/09/01 @ 09:55 am
dubversion http://www.ill-conceived.blogspot.com
like everyone else, it seems, i tie myself up in knots about this but basically end up sitting on the ‘Outrage need to work on their approach’ fence.
but dan – all due respect – i think you’re being a bit naive about the extent of the problem in JA. the dancehall cause/effect argument can run and run, but in the mean time people are still getting murdered….
2004/09/01 @ 03:41 pm
Dan http://molexroots.com
Woah, I was unaware of the extent of it Jamaica side. Murder is… pretty serious. I don’t know which side to back more; cut out – a small part of – a culture and illiminate gay killings or re-enforce Jamaican beliefs but end up with very serious prejudice. Right now the weight swings to the former…
2004/09/01 @ 06:17 pm
stelfox
i’ve been out of the loop for a few days and i don’t even really want to comment on this any more coz i’ve said quite enough on the matter in the past few months but i boild down to a conflict of two points for me 1) Prejudice is wrong no matter who or where it’s coming from. 2) I see this hounding of a predominant belief in Jamaica as a spectacular case of moving the cultural-imperialist goalposts, expecting everyone to fall in line with liberal western political ideals *exactly when we tell them to* rather than entering into any meaningful dialogue, or allowing other people to have their say. Banning people from expressing their predominantly religious beliefs is just as bad as banning people from expressing their sexuality and i really don’t know what the fuck the answer is, but i do know ity’s going to take time and actual *talking*, not swingeing censorship and dictatorial moralizing from either side.
actually there is a third point 3) Peter Tatchell *really* irritates me!
In any case, I wish they’d stop cancelling concerts left right and centre.
2004/09/02 @ 01:12 pm
stelfox ( / )
and, dan, it is a serious problem. people getting killed is never a good thing, so i do think any gay person who gets aggro about records saying they should die does have a point. still, outrage is notorious for addressing this point rather badly. simply put, my main problem with tatchell et al is that if a group is demanding tolerance from another, they would do well to show some tolerance toward the group they are making said demands of, otherwise they will get precisely nowhere, reinforce the attitudes they are trying to counter and fuck up any chance of making the situation better
2004/09/02 @ 01:21 pm
mattb ( / http://www.wretchedmatt.blogspot.com
dave, would you be so ‘understanding’ if it was neo-fascist bands singing about killing blacks? outrage’s tactics suck, but violent homophobia (the violence aspect being the most important) is nasty, abhorrent and should not be given a cloak of legitimacy. also, reggae artists main source of royalties is ‘a foreign’- there is (or should be) a dialogue going on, because ‘we’ , to some extent are part of the ‘culture’. reggae/ dancehall/ rastafarianism doesn’t have to be based on hate. we need to remember that.
2004/09/03 @ 11:06 am
stelfox ( / )
dave, would you be so ‘understanding’ if it was neo-fascist bands singing about killing blacks?
matt, that is a bullshit argument and *extremely* tired. sorry if that sounds rude but it really is. first of all, i want to repeat for the umpteenth time that, like john, i am in no way trying to apologise for prejudice. i am not in favour of these lyrical themes and find them a constant stumbling block in my love for this music. however, things like this rarely have straightforward right/wrong answers and, especially when faced with an ideological clash as contentious as this, a certain pragmatism and willingness to meet in the middle is useful. flouncing into the fray and demanding that the best part of an entire nation change its views *right this instant* to suit a moral code developed under vastly different cultural and economic circumstances is patronising at best and will always be seen as such by those you seek to “reform”. so what tatchell is doing is actually more likely to exacerbate the situation than it is to ameliorate it. the differences between neo-fascism and jamaican homophobia are so stark I can’t see how you can draw this comparison. you are comparing one facet of a religiously, legislatively and practically endorsed belief system, right at the core of a society, with a nutbag-fringe viewpoint that people are *never* forced into and *always* have to make a conscious choice to seek out and embrace (and never mind the vast socio-economic differences between the two places you’re comparing on equal terms). sorry if that all sounds stroppy, it’s honestly not meant to be.
2004/09/03 @ 12:53 pm
mattb ( / http://www.wretchedmatt.blogspot.com )
yep, the argument is tired (I was bored of having it in relation to skrewdriver in 1989) but it is not bullshit and is still pertinent. you don’t need to state that you are not an apologist, I know your not: the debate must move on.
clearly there isn’t a clear cut right/wrong response in relation to different culturally determined norms between societies, but that shouldn’t excuse/legitimate certain beliefs. I don’t care that religious belief endorses homophobia- that is not an excuse (it may be an explanation).
your statement that i seek to ‘reform’ anyone is just as silly as me suggesting that your argument implies that jamaican’s can’t think beyond these doctrines. oh, and I have never compared JA and UK on equal terms either J
I also disagree with you over the neo-fascist/JA homophobia differences: elements of black supremacy have some similarities with white supremacy, as a reggae fan you have to deal with it (i’ve always felt extremely ambiguous about ‘repatriation is a must’ lyrics for example), especially since the rise of the bobo dreads: sizzla, capleton, antony b (all of whom I love dearly) can release songs full of violent hatred. if we stopped buying those particular tunes, maybe they will at some point in the future see that such songs sell less, and thus stop making them. this seems to be a practical and realistic solution. although you might be missing out on a few ‘classics’ i don’t feel that a record collection is rendered worthless because it doesn’t include an original 7” of ‘boom bye bye’
2004/09/03 @ 01:52 pm
John
I think that with extreme fascist gigs there is also an immediate threat to the surrounding areas and a long term threat if the scene grows to any significant size.
When I was at college Blood & Honour opened up a shop selling records, zines etc nearby and all the boneheads would come down and harass people they didn’t like the look of. For me that was reason enough to get them shut down (though to be honest so were their “one day the world will know – Hitler was right” stickers. You don’t get that with reggae shops and people don’t generally leave reggae gigs and commit violent acts against gay people.
You don’t let people off because “it is their culture” but you might adopt different tactics…
2004/09/03 @ 01:58 pm
martin ( / )
Another point is that for the likes of Skrewdriver, No Remorse etc, the hatred WAS the point – the records and gigs were just a means of communicating the bile. And not being an apologist for queer-bashing meself, I’d argue that homophobia in ragga is a side-product – if you removed it, the music would still stand out on its own merits, for its unique sound and its witty chat. Cut the racism from Skrewdriver’s thrash and all you end up with is sub-AC/DC powerchords and throat cancer vox which even Tommy Vance would struggle to appreciate. I’ve never seen a ragga sleeve that depicted gays being attacked, or seen banners at the dances depicting homophobic slogans.
2004/09/03 @ 02:23 pm
mattb ( / http://www.wretchedmatt.blogspot.com )
crikey, i don’t wish to start a fascist apologist discussion: whether or not you cut the racism from skrewdriver, it’s still shit. ragga is not.
tatchall would be better off tackling homophobia in this country (eg: within the police, army etc), as it might make a positive change to gays in the UK. self-serving publicity bollocks harms everyone involved.
2004/09/03 @ 02:35 pm
John
In terms of not buying tunes, the issue is complex. Firstly I’m not certain that artists generally have any idea how many tunes are sold on seven – because they get paid a flat fee in most instances. Plus I would guess that the market for sevens is mainly dominated by soundmen rather than fanboys like us.
Royalties only come into question when you get on the CD/LP or compilation market, which makes it difficult – do you not buy an album because of one track or one verse?
Most people I know don’t buy “battyman” tunes on 7″ anyway, and this doesn’t seem to have made much difference…
2004/09/03 @ 02:52 pm
martin ( / )
Who’s being a fascist apologist? I’m not saying that racist lyrics make Skrewdriver ‘alright’, but they obviously provide the main point of the records
2004/09/03 @ 02:53 pm
stelfox ( / )
i think it’s pretty safe to say none of us are fucking nazis! christ alive, why does a diwscussion of jamaican dancehall, (made by black people, btw) always end up at this dead end. and matt, like it or not, judging the world from our own moral high ground *is * seeking to reform, also i am not saying jamaicans aren’t capable of thinking. that’s being really disingenuous as i’d never even suggest such a thing. however, i will say environment does affect the *way* people think, so this is not a level-playing-field issue (for so many reasons i really don’t have time to type them). importantly, it’s worth remembering that even in comfortable, affluent england homosexuality was only legalised in the 1960s and it’s taken a hell of a lot longer for the general public to become accepting of it. may still aren’t, so maybe we aren’t so great. choosing what records to by according to yr own personal beliefs – sensible and entirely understandable. as i write about this stuff, i try to download such tracks if i really need to listen to them.
2004/09/03 @ 03:32 pm
paul
I think MattB’s point is well-made, especially given his clarification “tatchall would be better off tackling homophobia in this country “. I.e., it appears he doesn’t support Outrage’s targeting of reggae artists — a tactic which is certainly ineffective, possibly counter-productive, and definitely fails to grapple with the actual issue of Jamaican homophobia. The question in my mind is, does the coverage of the issue which their tactics elicit in the Jamaican and British media, and the possible resultant impact on the awareness of the issue in Jamaica, justify both the (probably minor) economic impact on the artists concerned, and the (probably major) impact on the economic and artistic health of the broader reggae community in Britain? My view is that it does not, but there may be a finer line in judging Outrage’s tactics than I had at first identified.
Superb thread BTW — uncarved the new K-Punk? Congo Natty’s response to Boom Bye Bye: turn it into a raging “soundboy murderer”-style jungle refix by cutting up the sampled lyric…
2004/09/03 @ 04:50 pm
Dan http://molexroots.com
If there’s an album I really like, one silly track won’t get in my way of buying it. A single I like however, different story. If the homophobia is kept to a minimum then I’ll buy it. If the whole track itself is dedicated to dissing gays (Beenie Man on Scoobay anyone?) then no, I will not buy it.
2004/09/03 @ 09:27 pm
mattb ( / http://www.wretchedmatt.blogspot.com )
interestin article: http://www.jahworks.org/music/features/fire_burn.html
(‘fascist apologist’= ‘joke’)
2004/09/06 @ 12:25 pm
Dan dan@molexroots.com
That was a good read. A little disturbing, mind you. I never knew Sizzla was that extreme.
2004/09/07 @ 11:25 am
disillusioned
back to the point…
Reggae in the Park was cancelled because it didn’t sell enough tickets. period.
Security was called into question months before the OutRage! activity simply because, whether the white liberals on this board like it or not, violence is a factor at “black music” events especially dancehall. Even the recent “Urban Music Seminars”, a free event for young people seeking a career in the urban music industry required the presence of armed police after attendees began fighting and brandishing guns.
On another point the Bobo Shanti are a separatist movement within the Rastafari religion. So beyond homophobia it is also racist. Perhaps we’ll start seeing self-hating white liberals attending Nation of Islam rallies also?
What happened to peace, love and unity?
2004/10/04 @ 10:15 am