A little bit of history and a call for live music with the Smirks

I have been looking at my collection of old campaign badges.

Mine stretch back to the late 1960s and encompass many of the big issues of the period.  They are a wonderful introduction into the politics of the period ranging from CND, pensioners rights and plenty of industrial struggles.

Some are funny, a few very angry, a small number a little pretentious and the rest are wonderfully optimistic.

But behind them all were things that mattered to me at the time and most I still feel the same about nearly 40 years since I bought them.

Of course often the badges were a quick response to an immediate situation whether it was a factory closure a threat to a public service or a demand for a change in Government policy.

At other times they were about raising awareness which might be anything from “No to Nuclear Weapons”  “Manchester against Racism for Equality” or support for anti colonial movements.

Some did have more to do with wishful thinking but the majority were rooted in real things and upon the outcome turned the prosperity and hopes of whole communities.

This makes these humble little badges important because they are somebody’s history.

Put enough of them together from a particular period and you a have an insight into what was going on.

Of course they are only a start and the historian will dig much deeper than just the campaign badge but they are a pointer into the mood of how some people thought and acted.

And they were pretty much an instant response.  Two people with a badge machine and an imagination could respond to events passing them out in hours at a meeting or demonstration.

All of which leads me to Smirks against Travolta and the badge which I think my friend Lawrence gave me.

I was vaguely amused by it and really missed the point that there was a very real issue about the threat to live music from the growing popularity of discos and recorded music.

And as ever in going back to the Smirks I was led down a path to Jilted John whose demo record featured two of the Smirks.  From there by a slow process to Kirsty MacColl and There’s A Guy Who Works Down the Chip Shop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL2GmaI3Xus which may be a long way from Dog Walkers Against the Bomb and the Peoples March For Jobs but it is fun.

Pictures; badges from the collection of Andrew Simpson