I rang the manager of The Clash , a political punk rock group,
because there had been a suggestion from the BBC Television Community
Programme Unit that I have a four-minute discussion with the group. I have grave doubts about a Cabinet Minister appearing with a punk rock group, given
what the media would make it, and he agreed with me that four minutes
was not enough for a serious discussion. But what he said was
interesting. The Clash are apparently very popular with working-class
youngsters who don't find anything in our popular culture that meets
their needs or reflects their feelings. He told me the group were not
really concerned with being commercial and refused a lot of television
because it put them into an artificial setting when they were really a
live group. They were popular in Sweden, France and Yugoslavia. He said
that to get any attention at all you had to be absolutely bizarre, but
to understand what The Clash were trying to say you had to work really
hard because the lyrics were in pidgin French."
Tony Benn, Conflict of Interest: Diaries 1977-80, p.268
