Today’s Organ Thing of The Day shall be a little bit of a history lesson or a flight in a time machine or soemthing like that

40 years ago today – CND reborn with massive London demo, 26 October 1980. The Pop Group and Killing Joke play, with ‘hippies, punk rockers, skinheads and supporters of all ages. A girl on rollerskates joined the protest. So did a band of Buddhist monks, read more about it here

“I was there. When The band started there were people all around them all over the monument and the lions. Sometime during third song the police had moved the crowd away, the bright colours, people having a good time were replaced by uniformed bobbies, their blue coats and shiny silver buttons flanked the band, it was the weirdest spectacle, from light to dark, the band started in crazy chaos and ended in a sort of euphoric blast from the crowd but surrounded by ….pigs, basically. Not sure how they got away, it was a little bit of anarchy, and it was amazing, unforgettable, f**king awesome energy” (Sean Geraghty)

“Don’t forget The Pop Group were also at this event. They blew my 15 year old mind too!” (Si Hopebigood)

“During the march and before we got near the square we had a stand off with some Stalinists who thought it was just the west who should demilitarise while USSR mobilised. confused police had to separate us. The KJ set was fraught with technical problems but Jaz was also baiting the crowd who mostly hoped they were going to see Woodstock tribute acts. I agree with Sean that it was some real anarchy but not just against easy targets old bill but against the lame self congratulating ageing hippy crowd”. (Icaris Edwardson)”The Pop Group’s appearanve at Trafalgar Square, London, on 26th October 1980, was the final appearance of the band in their first incarnati Performing alongside Killing Joke as part of a widely attended CND rally ‘For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder’ had been released in March and Mark Stewart would perform ‘Jerusalem’ for the first time”