Cable Street at 90: A Brighton Gig with History

Ninety years after thousands of Londoners stood together against the British Union of Fascists, Brighton is marking the anniversary with a concert of its own. On Saturday 7 November, The Prince Albert on Trafalgar Street hosts a gig that looks back at the Battle of Cable Street, with doors and a 19:45 start. The indicative ticket price is £13.00. The evening is supported by Love Music Hate Racism and presented by The Real Music Club, and it has a clear historical thread running through it, so it reads less like a standard gig listing than an evening with a story behind it.

The battle took place on 4 October 1936, when Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts planned a march through the East End. According to the event's organisers, around 100,000 people turned out to block the route. Brighton has its own chapter in this history: the Battle of South Street in Worthing in 1934, when the same movement was confronted on the streets. A new blue plaque now records the local resistance to fascism and extremism, which adds a nearby angle to the anniversary.

The bill brings together four acts with different sounds. Dog of Man, a Brighton band, mix acid-punk with psych, Balkan and noise-rock, with a sound built around accordion and angular guitar. Jesus & The Zealots play psychedelic goth and post-punk with touches of 1980s dark-wave, and their frontman Henri Parnell grew up near Cable Street, which gives the night a personal link to the story. Gregg McKella, a singer-songwriter who fronts Paradise 9, brings a set of songs with a social edge. Tim Burness returns to The Real Music Club for a solo set, and he is working on material for his ninth album with long-time bandmates Monty Oxymoron (of The Damned), Fudge Smith and Keith Hastings.

For practical details, The Prince Albert is at 48 Trafalgar Street, Brighton, BN1 4ED. The full event page on Visit Brighton has the latest information on the line-up and tickets, so it is worth checking there before you head out. Whether you come for the bands, the history or both, it is a chance to spend an evening thinking about a moment in British history that still gets talked about today.