biko

From 1984 to 1992, my ex wife Rebecca and I lived in a delightful old Victorian house in Manchuria Road on Clapham Common, and in June 1986 the park at the end of our street hosted a massive Artists Against Apartheid Festival for Freedom, featuring free music from the likes of Big Audio Dynamite, The Style Council, Sade, Sting, Elvis Costello, Hugh Masakela, Gil Scott-Heron, Billy Bragg and many more.

After scouting the rather tall stage at lunchtime, I scurried home to grab my aluminum ladder, figuring that as the official AAA photographer I could justify being head and shoulders above the crowd, and the other photographers

Later that afternoon more than 100,000 protesters, who had marched in blazing sunshine from Hyde Park to Clapham, gathered on the Common for the entertainment part of the day’s program, and as night fell, Jerry Dammers led the masses on and off the stage in a rousing, raucous and uplifting version of his song ‘Free Nelson Mandela’. 

What followed was the even more epic finale: Peter Gabriel’s stunning and immensely moving rendition of his haunting anthem ‘Biko’.

In the Freedom Fest movie you can see me perched atop the ladder in my backwards cycling hat and stupidly short white shorts, taking the photo of Peter with his fist raised.

Years later, Billy Bragg told me that although there were 100,000 people there when he performed that day, all he could was my ugly face.