Ms Dynamite has called for an end of gun crime at a concert held yesterday in remembrance of the two teenagers shot dead in Birmingham over Christmas. In a poem she called for people in the black community to "start loving instead of killing each other".
Although a letter from Tony Blair was read out promising the police will find and bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of Charlene Ellis and Latisha Shakespeare, Beverley Knight used the occasion to accuse the government of being "irresponsible and misguided" in their approach to Britain's gun culture.
She criticised Home Secretary David Blunkett for picking on music as a "soft target" in explaining violence on Britain's streets. "Violence is inextricably linked with poverty and communities that have had an economic break-down - that brings the guns and the violence,” she said.