Efforts will begin today to get a chart placing for a new anti-racism song by the band Neck, which is being released via Militant Entertainment, a new record label set up by the guys behind Glastonbury's Left Field stage.
The release of the song, called 'Everybody's Welcome To The Hooley', is timed to coincide with St Patrick's Day (which is next week, of course), and recalls how as recently as the sixties it was common place to see signs saying things like "No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs" in establishments around London. However, the political mission behind the song and the label releasing it is to tackle more contemporary racism, and as such the venture as won the support of trade union and anti-racism bodies, many of the artists who support the Love Music Hate Racism campaign, and even the House Of Commons.
The band's frontman Leeson O'Keeffe told CMU: "The song's visuals draw on the photo of a sign in a guest house window from London in the 60's saying No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. It's a reminder to Irish people both here and back home that they've been the victims of racism down the years and that we should be in the front line of the campaign against racism and intolerance today."
Support from the House Of Commons came via Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, who last week put forward an Early Day Motion supporting the venture, asking his colleagues to agree that: "this House warmly welcomes the initiative taken by the Battersea and Wandsworth TUC, Amicus and the Left Field at Glastonbury Festival to bring an anti-racist theme to this year's St Patrick's Day celebrations through the release of a single `Everybody's Welcome to the Hooley!' by north London band Neck" noting "that the song draws on an image from a London guest house in the 1950s with a sign in the window saying `No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs' and so is a rallying call for the continuing campaign against all forms of racial discrimination and intolerance", and that "profits from the record will be donated to the Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) campaign and will assist LMHR in their important work in taking the anti-racist message out to young people through music".
The track is released today, and will be available online via a partnership with Napster. The band will be performing the track next week when they perform at SXSW in the US.
Press info from Geoff Martin at Militant Entertainment on 07831 465 103.