"Our Streets" by Grail Guard

Do you hate racism as much as I do & as much as Grail Guard do?  Would a bit of clear polemic pushing back against such bigotry help cheer you up in the struggle? Then the new single "Our Streets" by that band is right up your street.

A seering re-recording of their 2023 position statement and the last taster for the forthcoming 'Still No Future' album, it would seem that the band felt that however powerful the song was on first recording, they could distil their fury down into even more concentrated form & to their credit, with the help of Jon Priestly at Abatis Studios, they managed it.

Mind you the situation does seem to have only got worse in the intervening period so their efforts were necessary.

Framed by the sort of personal narrative which endows songs of passion with particular power & laced with the sort of inconvenient facts which the prejudiced can't cope with, Riaz Rawat plainly lays out the multigenerational investment his own family have made in the country: since 1952 in fact.

Which leads on to the core message: one of inclusivity. How dare these people claim exclusive rights to Britain? People who have come to Britain (initially invited), contributed massively over many years, including doing jobs the ancestors of the current racists turned their noses up at, made levels of commitment beyond those now demonstrating prejudice, surely have at least the same entitlements to "ownership" of the streets of Britain (and the rest of it): if arguably not a bit more?

Of course the song is angry (with just cause) but it's fundamentally articulate & makes its points with rationality as well as emotion. I wonder how many idiots will be won over? Unfortunately racism is neither a moral nor rational creed and followed by those who have been told the facts before & they don't seem to have sunk in. Regardless, "Our Streets" can still function as "a call-out to racism, fear and the toxic nationalism we see daily in the news and on our streets……It's about history. Heritage. Belonging and standing together, so join us in the final line and shout it loud: 'We don't want them in our streets!' ?We don't want racists and bigots in our streets.

Because when people stand together, great things happen."

Well said.

Look out too for the album launch release at Brubl in Leamington on the 27th March: it's free entry