…and whitey’s on the Strand

Last time I saw Gil Scott-Heron was in 1984, he didn’t know me but I knew him. Years spent soaking up the lyrics to Johannesburg and The Bottle gave me a kindred attachment that meant watching him do his stuff during an afternoon gig at the South Bank in London was like watching a favourite uncle say, (and not the type who likes to give ‘special’ cuddles to nephews) or at the very least, a mate.

It was a good gig in glorious sunshine with my actual mates and my best girl at my side and there are few finer ways to spend a weekend. We bootlegged Gil’s set holding up a huge ghetto-blaster containing probably 120 D-sized batteries and no-one told us off – cool. And afterwards we wandered along the river and watched The Kids doing their stuff aboard BMXs and playing rollerblade hockey in the underpass.

Not one had a beard.

Or a tattoo.

The only pic I can find from the day though I shot lots of GSH

It’s a different world now and a better one frankly, and it’s different and better because of voices like Gil’s, chipping away at injustice.

Gil Scott-Heron d. 27 May 2011

I want to say that later we went back to the bikes, my baby scooched up behind me and we headed south at never less than 80mph to watch the waves lap over the pebbles at Brighton. Hmm. Actually we walked up to Trafalgar Square, drank Sam Smith’s in The Chandos and Molson in The Maple Leaf, wandered along to The Coal Hole for a last wodka and boarded the Central Line at Charing Cross back to Leytonstone.

Not quite rock and roll but a good day.

Thanks Gil, mate.

NB Gil’s appearance was part of a day organised by the then soon-to-be-disbanded GLC led by Ken Livingstone and featured bands including Billy Bragg and The Smiths (fulfilling dates booked before they were famous). The event was also notorious for some pretty stiff fighting with neo-Nazis. Read more about it here