Babyshambles urge music fans to make anti-racist stand

Babyshambles' guitarist Drew McConnell has urged fans to speak out against racism.

Speaking to NME.COM as part of our link up with Love Music Hate Racism, McConnell said that people needed to stop being so passive in their attitudes.

He said: “A lot of people feel anti-racist but it’s a passive thing - they’re not actually going out there and using their voice to do something. So if you have something that says ‘this is what you can do about challenging racism’, that’s a good thing.

“But secondly this stuff is creeping in. Some of it, if people haven’t heard a different argument can sound like common sense. The BNP don’t go around saying ‘we want to gas anyone that’s not white in a holocaust’, they put on a suit and pretend they’re respectable politicians."

He added: “What we’re about is trying to make it a desperately untrendy, unfashionable thing and to leave no one in any doubt about what the BNP actually stand for.”

McConnell also urged music fans to educate themselves, saying: “Go to the Love Music Hate Racism website, there’s lots of information on what’s happening with the BNP.

“Cursory ignorance that is inherent in people like Jade Goody and so forth, that’s what the BNP is preying on.”

Babyshambles’ ’Stone Me - What A Life!’ features on NME’s free Love Music Hate Racism CD, available on the cover of this week’s NME, on sale at newsstands now.

The double CD comes free with this week’s NME, in partnership with Love Music Hate Racism, who are making a stand against the BNP and their targeting of schools.

The two discs contain a mix of new songs, hidden tracks, live versions and remixes, also featuring The Enemy, The View and Hard-Fi.

To get hold of the first disc, simply pick up this week's issue of NME on UK newsstands now.

The tracklisting of CD1 is:

1. The Enemy – ‘Fear Killed The Youth Of Our Nation’
2. Lethal Bizzle - ‘Babylon’s Burning The Ghetto’
3. Roll Deep – ‘Racist People (Vocal Remix)’
4. Helsinki – ‘Ampersand’
5. The View – ‘Fireworks & Flowers’
6. Hard-Fi - ‘We Need Love (Wrong Tom Mix)’
7. MIA featuring Afrikan Boy – ‘Hussle’
8. Bloc Party Vs Diplo – ‘Where Is Home? (Diplo Remix)’
9. Carbon/Silicon - ‘The Network’s Going Down’
10. Natty – ‘If I…’
11. Babyshambles – ‘Stone Me - What A Life!’
12. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly – ‘If I could Build You A Tower (demo)’
13. The Charlatans – ‘Blank Heart, Blank Mind’
14. Dirty Pretty Things – ‘9 Lives’
15. Albert Hammond Jr. – ‘Cartoon Music For Superheroes’

Meanwhile, the second CD is available to download from NME.COM/lovemusichateracism - the artwork we're giving away with the issue features space for your CD-R.

The tracklisting of CD2 is:

1. Blood Red Shoes - ‘Can’t Find The Door’
2. Manu Chao - ‘Tristeza Maleza’
3. Mecca 2 Medina - ‘Who The Cap Fits’
4. Akala - ‘Electro Livin’’
5. Nine Black Alps - ‘Burn Faster’
6. Biffy Clyro - ‘Love Has A Diameter’
7. New Young Pony Club - ‘Ice Cream (The Hooks Remix)’
8. Billy Bragg - ‘The Big Lie (Featuring Ian McLagan)’
9. Maximo Park - ‘Nosebleed’
10. Statik - ‘Summer Nights (Featuring Tom Paddington, Ears, Scorcher)’
11. Fionn Regan - ‘Campaign Button’
12. The Noisettes - ‘Shame’
13. Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit - ‘Cold Bread (Engine Room Demo)’
14. Skream - ‘Chest Boxing’

For more on the CD and the LMHR campaign go to NME.COM/lovemusichateracism now.

Babyshambles tickets: