Rock Against Racism, Northern Carnival, 1978: Photographs by Thomas Blower

Thomas Blower is a documentary photographer from Manchester, UK. He captured inner-city Manchester in the 1970s and 1980s and continues to document the city’s changing face today.

Blower’s work is an important part of the BCA collections and is featured in our touring exhibition A Celebration of Life in the North — a testament to his ability to find beauty and humanity in the overlooked corners of Manchester.

Carnival Against The Nazis

On the 15th of July 1978, Thomas attended the Northern Carnival Against the Nazis in Manchester’s Alexandra Park. The carnival was conceived by Bernie Wilcox of Rock Against Racism and Geoff Brown of the Anti-Nazi League. Both were among the thousands of Manchester-based anti-racists who travelled to the first Carnival Against the Nazis in London’s Victoria Park. On the train journey home, Wilcox and Brown decided that Manchester needed to stage its own carnival as part of the wider fight against racism and the far right.

Wilcox and Brown organised the event in just ten weeks. To ensure its success, they enlisted Chris Hewitt, who had experience organising the Deeply Vale Festival and providing sound for a range of Rock Against Racism and Anti-Nazi League indoor events. Hewitt supported the staging, fencing, sound, and generators. Equipment from the Deeply Vale Festival, held five days later near Bury, was also used, making the carnival financially and logistically viable. In addition, Bernie Wilcox and Deeply Vale jointly organised a Rock Against Racism day as part of the July 1978 festival.

March from Strangeways

The Northern Carnival featured performances from X-O-Dus (who later signed to Factory Records), Buzzcocks, China Street, and Steel Pulse. Before the bands performed, more than 15,000 people marched from Strangeways Prison (where it was believed the National Front had infiltrated the staff) to Alexandra Park. During the march, a number of reggae, punk, and steel bands played on the back of lorries, creating the carnival atmosphere that would spill into the park later in the afternoon.

"The gig itself was great. There was no violence, no antagonism; it was just one big party with thousands of people in attendance. People were drinking and smoking a bit of this and that - It was fantastic. I was a big reggae fan myself, but I didn't dance that often, though when Steel Pulse came on, you couldn't help but dance!'

- Thomas Blower.

The images in this series remained unseen for more than forty years before being accepted into the BCA collections.

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Thomas Blower Prints | BCA

Published
April 21, 2021