A presentation and Q&A session with Faithless guitarist Dave Randall will take place on Monday June 5, between 6.30pm and 8.30pm at Harrow Mencap in Harrow-on-the Hill.

Dave, who also started the band Slovo, is the author of Sound System – The Political Power Of Music, published with Pluto Press earlier this year.

He visited Harrow Mencap in March after his book had been published to highlight the role music has played in politics over the centuries. From the use of secular music in resisting the Church and feudal lords, to it being an integral part of the Arab Spring, and its use in grime music to articulate inner London issues.

At the event former Harrow Mayor Nana Asante presented Dave with a copy of 60 Faces Of Harrow and Look How Far We`ve Come: The Race/Racism Primer.

In Dave’s own book he tells the history of the Rock Against Racism (RAR) movement, it explains how in the 1970s, the left was faced with a rising far right in the shape of the National Front.

Originally conceived as a one-off concert with a message against racism, Rock Against Racism was founded in 1976 by Red Saunders, Roger Huddle and others. According to Huddle: “It remained just an idea until August 1976” when Eric Clapton made a drunken declaration of support for former Conservative minister Enoch Powell (known for his anti-immigration Rivers of Blood speech) at a concert in Birmingham.

Clapton told the crowd that England had “become overcrowded” and that they should vote for Powell to stop Britain from becoming “a black colony”.

He continued his rant with racist slurs before he repeatedly shouting the National Front slogan “Keep Britain White”.

Huddle, Saunders and two members of Kartoon Klowns responded by writing a letter to NME expressing their opposition to Clapton’s comments, which they claimed were “all the more disgusting because he had his first hit with a cover of reggae star Bob Marley’s I Shot the Sheriff.

It said: “Come on Eric... Own up. Half your music is black. Who shot the Sheriff, Eric? It sure as hell wasn’t you!”

At the end of the letter, they called for people to help form a movement called Rock Against Racism.

In a 2007 interview with ITV, Eric Clapton said he still supported Powell, and that he didn’t view Powell as a racist.

The event with Dave is part of the several British Black Music Month (BBMM) 2017 events taking place in Harrow in June and July. All the event details can be found at BBM.eventbrite.com