If it was going to happen at all they thought it would happen in Brixton where the clubs being raided all the time sent the black youth to set up their sound systems and I Roy pounded through the open windows, the streets turned to dub. Or even maybe again down the Grove, like it did in the 60’s and where each year the Carnival gets policed more heavily (they call it “low profile”) than before. Bristol came as a shock to a white community of liberals whose eyes were elsewhere and didn’t consider that the divide—their comprehension of institutionalized racism only on paper—had turned into a chasm.

In April the Bristol cops raided the Black and White cafe in St. Pauls in the middle of the afternoon, Black youth, toff the streets, were accused of illegal drinking and smoking weed. The police turned up in spme force, with dogs; they took out the club owner. Reports after that gotv expectedly muzzy given a white press presence in a black culture. Harrassment. For the next nine-hours—into the night and to the next dawn—a bank and a printing works were set on fire, over 100 blacks were arrested, cars—some of them patrol cars—were burned, there were ' reports of widespread looting, stones were hurled, explosions set off. St. Pauls, an area of black and white urban decay, was a no-go area with the police closing ranks, attacking with dogs, re-grouping. It was the Bristol riot.