By Fin Kennedy
Mark Flanagan’s hysterical article about the evils of pirate radio (The Stage, July 27, page 30) presented the usual prejudiced and paranoid view of the white middle-class establishment on this subject. I’m a playwright who’s just finished a hip hop musical for teenagers set in a pirate radio station. It’s touring the country this autumn with Half Moon Young People’s Theatre. My experience of pirate radio in researching and writing this play was very different to the dark world of drugs and crime which Flanagan describes. His Daily Mail attitude is part of a wider demonisation of inner city communities, and particularly young people, which can only be counter-productive.
Contrary to what Flanagan claims, most pirate stations aren’t run with money as the prime motivation. Many are very amateur affairs set up in somebody’s kitchen or attic. The overwhelming majority do it for a love of the music and the chance to create a dialogue with an appreciative like-minded audience. The effect of not being able to hear music and debates from within your own culture anywhere else in the media should not be underestimated. Not all pirates are run by young urban rappers and DJs. Some, like Afric FM and Naira FM, are run by middle-aged Africans playing reggae, soca, dancehall and afrobeat, interspersed with debates about political events in Africa and elsewhere. The ads consist of citizenship events for young people, upcoming tours of African musicians, and church fetes.
Those that do specialise in hip hop and grime tend not to be interested in the nasty corporate gangster rap promoted so heavily by many of the legitimate music stations, including the BBC. The most politically aware rappers of recent years, with the most urgent messages from the inner cities, such as Dizzee Rascal, Kano, Sway, Akala and Skinnyman could never have made it without developing their craft and learning about music technology equipment on the pirate stations. Unlike their powerful commercial rivals churning out bland McMusic, pirates have been at the cutting edge of urban music in the UK for many years. There is very little investment in these genres of music from the commercial sector because, unlike the predominantly white middle-class fans of indie rock bands, the fan base for urban music doesn’t have the money to spend on endless gigs, festivals and over-priced CDs. During the recent knife amnesty I was teaching a group of young people in Hackney to write plays. I took the chance to ask them what the council could do to keep young people from getting involved in crime. Their answer was unanimous: give us a recording studio. For these urban teenagers (and they’re not just black any more – hip hop long ago transcended racial barriers to become a universal language) pirate radio studios are the nearest they can get. And making music is the only thing they feel passionately about.
The inter-activity of pirate radio is also testament to its community role. During the afternoons many stations like Y2K FM hold phone-in debates on the issues of the day. These will often end with a vote using two different mobile phone numbers to represent views for and against, with the number of missed calls as votes. This is a laudable example of affordable, inclusive grass roots political debate within an otherwise disenfranchised community. But because they can't afford a community broadcasting licence they are made into criminals and further marginalised.
Flanagan’s article makes some totally unsupported claims that pirates are involved with drugs. By his rationale, The Stage is also ‘tied to the drugs trade’ because it ‘promotes events where drugs can be bought or sold’ by advertising lap dancing clubs in the back pages, at which it is well known that copious quantities of cocaine are consumed. So is every other listings magazine in London. He trots out the old complaint that pirate broadcasts interfere with air traffic control and emergency service frequencies. But technology has progressed since the 1980s and 90s and most pirate transmitters are now ‘crystal locked’ which means there is no leakage either side of the frequency. If planes really were being rapped out of the sky by east London pirate MCs do you not think we might have heard about it on the news?
The prosecution statistics Flanagan quotes speak for themselves. The courts aren’t stupid – if they’re only convicting 58 out of 770 offenders each year then that’s a testament to how few people involved in pirate radio are guilty of a criminal offence.
Flanagan’s brand of prejudice taps into a wider debate about the relationship we have with our inner city communities and particularly their young people. It is part of an ongoing media-driven moral panic which is deeply pernicious and counterproductive. The inner city teenagers I work with are all intelligent, spirited, creative, politically aware people. Yes they’re easily-led but then who isn’t at 16? The key is to provide them with the right sorts of influences and opportunities, not to marginalise them for life by criminalising them before they’ve even become adults.
There is an ongoing debate within our industry about inclusion and theatre’s potential to reach out to disaffected people and make their voices heard. I’m a white middle-class graduate myself, but in writing my play Locked In I set myself the challenge of learning the language of the inner cities. Pirate radio was the channel of communication that they opened up to me, and my fusion of hip hop and theatre is my attempt to answer back. I only hope their voices aren’t closed down by the likes of Flanagan and his corporate axis. Our conversation has barely started.
Locked In tours nationally from 27 Sept
www.halfmoon.org.uk
A pirate radio transcript
The following is a transcript of a live conversation on Y2K FM (90.6FM) phone-in, 2pm Thursday 22 April 2004.
JUNIOR B: I guarantee dat a group of black boys’ll come up wiv da most technical stuff, dey will come up wiv da most technical stuff yeah, dey will tell you fings you aint even heard about. And not about street life, wiv in everyfink, wiv in like history, dey do. A lotta black kids yeah, on road, me personally I been around a lotta black an white youths yeah an like da conversation dat we have, even if we’re standin on da corner a da road an dere’s nuffink ta do, you might fink we’re talkin about drugs, gels, sex rair-rair-rair ekcetra, but really an truly we’re havin a proper conversation, dya unnerstand what im sayin?
Caller: Mm-hm. Well you know I would like to add dis one fing yeah, because there’s a sayin an it’s in the Bible – you only get one chance to be a man and two chances to be a child -
JUNIOR B: Yeah.
Caller: - so for me I’d advise all young people to – you - you’re at your best when you’re young, at da eighteen or sixteen to … thirty, you’re you know you’re young you’re strong you’re energetic, an those are the times you need to invest in yourself, cos once you go over thirty you start to slow down, your metabolism slows down –
JUNIOR B: Yeah.
Caller: - you see so it’s not about bein on da street, you see dat is what is imprisonin our young people –
JUNIOR B: Yeah.
Caller: - yeah, an dis ghetto … um, thing where they’re - its its an enslavement in their mind –
JUNIOR B: Yeah.
Caller: - dya understand? An the way they wear their trousers, its like their trousers have become their handcuffs –
JUNIOR B: Alright, can you raise a point on de trousers cos we was gonna get inta dat conversation after dat, can you raise a point on dat, boys wearin deir trousers low ekcetra, can ya just raise a point on dat please?
Caller: Well I don’t agree, I would like ta know where dis fashion / came from first –
JUNIOR B: Arright can I tell you?
Caller: I don’t I don’t – in de black / community we –
JUNIOR B: Arright can I tell you? Can I tell you? Can I tell you where dat come from?
Caller: Yeah.
JUNIOR B: Arright in America yeah …
Caller: Yeah.
JUNIOR B: Arright in America state penitentiaries, like jail, yeah –
Caller: Mm-hm.
JUNIOR B: Now y’know yer not allowed no laces, yeah?
Caller: Mm-hm.
JUNIOR B: Yer not allowed no belts and, like jewlry ekcetra yeah, so like if yer in America an you went to a American jail, yeh - an de trousers dat – you don’t get like, in America dey don’t give ya sizes. It’s full stop, you get what yer given yeah, so -
Caller: Okay.
JUNIOR B: - if you ain’t got a belt, yer trousers’re hangin off – dass dat come from jail, yeah. An like y’see de uvver style when y’got like one leg, y’see when y’got one leg … um on yer trousers rolled up an de uvver is down – dass come from America as well, dass from Deff Row, when ya goin on Deff Row – yeah – dey um put one foot in a bucket of water an y’have ta have like ya trouser rolled up, so a lot of dese fings are negative but … black people, I’m gonna say black people now cos black people in general are makin em fings positive but really an truly they negative, y’unnerstand what I’m sayin?
Caller: Okay but why would someone take some negativity … to, an an embrace it? Cos thass what’s imprisonin our young people –
JUNIOR B: Yeah.
Caller: - cos if y’listen to it, de trousers, de style, de fashion is from Death Row –
JUNIOR B: Yeah.
Caller: - it’s got very … negative connotations yeah? De way dey wear dere one foot up an one foot down, iss all about negativity, iss all about deff, iss all about destruction so why would young people wanna take dat fashion an walk about it – walk about – I mean iss not really liberatin em is it? Iss iss iss isolatin em from de community isn’t it?
JUNIOR B: Yeah.
Caller: So y’know what I mean? Cos if y’go inna shop y’don’t see somebody all fugged dass servin you behind de counter, you see a young beautiful … y’know a young man or a beautiful young lady dressed, y’know –
JUNIOR B: Yeah.
Caller: - an deir parents is clean and acceptable –
JUNIOR B: Yeah.
Caller: - an iss not about bein accept – I know like, when you’re a teenager its all about rebelliousness in da community but –
JUNIOR B: Yeah.
Caller: – at de enda da day you can rebel so far an really isolate yourself, an I find dat a lot of our young people dey isolate deirself, dey damage deir names an destroy deir names an get themself in trouble wiv da law, an really all dese fings, yeah you might be from dat an you’re loyal to da street but –
JUNIOR B: Arright.
Caller: - when you destroy your name – dass all you’ve got, iss more valuable to you dan silver an gold –
JUNIOR B: Arright.
Caller: - yeah? No matter how many chains an how many –
JUNIOR B: Caller -
Caller: - fancy cars dat you got but your name is da most valuable fing, if you destroy dat – your name an your credit really –
JUNIOR B: Yeah.
Caller: - are de fings dat you will need when you’re older / if you -
JUNIOR B: Arright –
Caller: - if you wanna buy a house or buy a car. If you go an destroy em when you’re young, an you know cos it has no value to you –
JUNIOR B: Yeah –
Caller: - but when you need it, it will not be there.
Pause.
JUNIOR B: Arright arright, caller. I’m gonna ave ta cut you short dere yeah, cos we got couple more callers tryin a get fru yeah.
Caller: Okay. Thank you / very much -
JUNIOR B: But I respect what / yer sayin yeah?
Caller: - you’re doin very well on your show yeah –
JUNIOR B: Fank you very much –
Caller: - an I hope ta, em, do you have talk shows like dis every week?
JUNIOR B: Um, not every week but we gonna start be doin dat – hey y’know what – y’know what show ya need ta be, ah y’know what show y’need ta be locked into, de free wise men, an dat is tomorrow at four – two ta four o’clock, yeah?
Caller: At your station?
JUNIOR B: Yeah, on dis station yeah.
Caller: Okay I’ll be listenin out for you.
JUNIOR B: Arright can I say –
Caller: An have a good day.
JUNIOR B: Arright you as well.
Caller: Thank you, bye.
JUNIOR B: Arright.
She hangs up. Pause.
JUNIOR B: Yeah. Arright town London do remember tomorrow izza talk show twelve til four, free wise men where you talk about all your current issues around town. Arright so yeah we like ta fank everybody for callin up dis afternoon, takin part inna debate onna issues currently … talked about yeah. We appreciate dat very very very very very very very very very much. Yeah we gonna get some music playin on fer you dis afternoon yeah, if you wanna hear some music …