“Ev’rywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy
‘Cause summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy…“
(The Rolling Stones, Street Fighting Man, 1968)
The 1960′s was the decade of change, a decade of love, of the pill, the Rolling Stones, and of sweeping changes in hemlines. It was also a decade of activism, of protests and demonstrations, aimed at overthrowing old prejudices and promoting a new liberalism.
In 1968, Mick Jagger wrote his most political song, Street Fighting Man – influenced by the rallies in London and violence in Paris, he attended the anti-War demonstration outside London’s U.S. embassy during which the police attempted to control a crowd of 25,000. Sound familiar?
This April, Savile Row’s Flash Projects present Street Fighting Man, an exhibition of photographs demonstrating the power of rock and roll as a focus of rebellion, including extended series of photographs documenting riots at Rolling Stones concerts, as well as Caroline Coon‘s celebrated photographs of punks including The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Slits, and The Buzzcocks ; the exhibition also traces a wider sociological context of street protests that include CND marches, civil unrest in Ireland, inner city riots, and the Poll tax riots. As we saw over the weekend of 26th March (and the bright spark that threw the fire extinguisher from a roof during the student fees protests) almost fifty years on, the exhibition is as close to some of the most recent world affairs as we’ve seen in decades.
28th April - 4th June 2011 Flash Projects, 5 Savile Row, London, W1S 3PD
http://artwednesday.com/2011/03/30/street-fighting-man/
http://www.flash-projects.co.
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