Love Music Hate Racism

Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) is a music-oriented antiracism campaign based in Britain. The campaign aims to bring people together and promote unity through the power of music. LMHR was born in the tradition of the Rock Against Racism (RAR) movement of the late 1970s. The campaign held many successful festivals in the early 2000s such as a Victoria Park carnival and at Stoke Britannia Stadium, at which tens of thousands of people attended and international artists performed.

It is closely associated with Unite Against Fascism (UAF)/Stand Up To Racism (SUTR), the successors of the Anti-Nazi League (ANL); ANL co-founder Paul Holborow described LMHR, UAF and SUTR as "stand ngin he ANL'stradition."

Organisation

LMHR is a broad based campaign made up of antiracism campaigners, musicians, music industry professionals and educators. It has local groups in towns and cities around Britain. Its current spokespeople include Atlantic Records VP Paul Samuels, and in the past have included its convener and national organiser Martin Smith and Zak Cochrane.

History

LMHR was set up in 2002 in response to the perceived increase in support for the far right British National Party."AGENDA: Love Music, Hate Racism, be Kind to 40-Something Men." ''Birmingham Post,'' 21 Aug 2008, p. 9. ''ProQuest''. Web. 10 December 2019 . The first big LMHR concert was a festival in Manchester's Platt Fields Park, headlined by Doves and Ms. Dynamite.

Over the years it has gained the support of several acts in the UK of varying genres, including rock acts such as Ed Sheeran, Pete Doherty and Blood Red Shoes, grime acts like Roll Deep and Lowkey, punk rock acts like the King Blues, and jazz musicians like Courtney Pine. Due to this breadth and due to the organisation's belief that society's diversity is reflected in music, most LMHR concerts include several music genres.

In October 2007 LMHR ran a campaign in the music magazine, '' NME''. In December 2007 the campaign announced that it would mark the 30th anniversary of the RAR/ANL carnival and procession with a similar event in Victoria Park on 27 April 2008.

The singer Morrissey donated money to the organisation in 2007 and again in 2008 to enable its Victoria Park event to go ahead, although in 2010 LMHR spokesperson Martin Smith said it would no longer accept his donations after he made an allegedly racist comment about Chinese people.

In 2018, John McDonnell, Diane Abbott, Kate Osamor and other prominent figures signed a statement calling for support for the organisation, alongside its sibling organisations Unite Against Fascism and Stand Up To Racism.

Love Music Hate Racism is launching a campaign called '#BeautifulResistance' to run for a fortnight between 8–22 March 2019 involving co-ordinated activities across the music industry including music labels, promoters, venues, music press, festivals, footballers, artists, managers and more.

References

External links

Love Music Hate Racism websiteLove Music Hate Racism at Companies HouseLMHR at Companies House

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Musical advocacy groups
Rock festivals in the United Kingdom
Anti-racism in the United Kingdom