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‘They didn’t call us for Live Aid’: the stars behind Black Britain’s forgotten charity record

In 1985, a star-studded lineup of Black UK musicians, including Aswad, Dennis Brown and Janet Kay, recorded a charity single to raise funds for famine-stricken Ethiopia. Why are their efforts so little known?

Any artist was welcome This was very much a grassroots operation, and word spread of the plan to make a charity record at popular community centres such as Roots Pool in Hackney, east London, where, as Leiffer recalls, you were as likely to see reggae royalty such as Dennis Brown as you were a “notorious local gangster”. However, on the vexed issue of the lack of Black British representation in the aforementioned project and its follow-up concert Live Aid – notwithstanding the presence in the latter of pop-jazz star Sade – he has strong views, and believes the argument that reggae artists were simply not big enough to make the bill doesn’t cut any ice. Although one headline called it “Live Aid reggae style”, the event also showcased Black British culture in the broadest sense, including appearances by notable sports people such as Olympic sprinter Mike McFarlane and boxer Dennis Andries.

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