Peace protester Brian Haw joined XX Teens on stage at Friday's Underage festival and delivered a ten minute speech to rapturous response in what was, we're told by one festival-goer, "an oddly inspiring moment". Brian Haw, of course, has been camped outside the Houses Of Parliament in permanent protest for the last seven years. The final track on XX Teens recently released debut album, 'Welcome To Goon Island' is called 'For Brian Haw'.
XX Teens frontman Rich Cash said afterwards: "We didn't know if anyone would know who he was but they recognized him straight away. We're proud to count him as a friend. Some people think he's mad. Maybe it's comforting to assume that because he's sacrificed everything he must've had nothing to lose. It's not true. He's an ordinary man with a home and a family who went to a protest seven years ago, realized that a tolerated demonstration was infused with impotence; and refused to go home. Since then the government has removed many of our rights and freedoms. We no longer have the automatic right to peaceful protest. Brian is now the only man in the world with the right to sustained protest in Parliament Square. He stands there, day and night, year on year, as a symbol not only of the rights we once had, but also as a symbol of hope, of the freedoms we might one day claw back".
More info on Brian Haw here.