Hope Versus Fear

The brief story of two contrasting 1980s anti-stigma campaigns

In 1986 a record was released on behalf of Phoenix House called ‘It’s a Live-in World by the Anti-Heroin Project’, this was a Band Aid style single and compilation album featuring artists of a similar calibre.

Band Aid in 1984 and subsequently Live Aid in 1985 were a huge cultural and financial success. Bob Geldof led the projects which attempted to aid the victims of the Ethiopian famine who had been brought to the nation’s attention by the vivid images of Michael Burke’s news broadcasts. ‘It’s a Live-in World’ included contributions from pop music royalty Cliff Richard, Paul McCartney and Wham! The record was produced at Abbey Road Studios by the musician and producer Charley Foskett with the intention of repeating the success of Band Aid and raising funds and awareness for Phoenix House. For a drug treatment sector only just emerging into the mainstream this was a huge achievement.

Charley Foskett in his autobiography ‘Ashtray on a Motorbike’ (2015) describes how he believed David Mellor, the Minister responsible for drug policy within Thatcher’s government, saw the high profile and positive pro-treatment nature of the campaign as a threat to the government’s own anti-heroin campaign and therefore sabotaged the record release:

“Mellor and his darker forces had rendered the BBC totally helpless and we were also banned from giving ‘It’s a Live-in World’ any much needed airplay what-so-ever. They were forbidden from even covering our endeavours and promotional campaign on the news – Nothing! Zilch!

Why?

I got in the way of the government’s own anti heroin campaign and it was looking like ‘It’s a Live-In-World’ may have proved much more effective than their own multi million pound efforts which was primarily spent on those huge hording adverts that appeared throughout the UK in January 1987 – Kids with dark rings under their eyes looking gray and washed out; giant syringes dripping blood looked down onto every other street corner, this campaign lasted for a couple of months and then seemed to disappear without trace.”

The Phoenix House record was released, but failed to achieve anything like the success of Band Aid and Live Aid. Lucy Robinson (2014) in her study of charity records notes that they very quickly became ubiquitous and stuck closely to the multi-musician formula set by Band Aid. Robinson describes the 80s as being an ideal period for the charity record as they combined the “Victorian values of philanthropy” in a form that fitted the youth orientated media so that “Charity singles were the perfect cultural form for Mrs Thatcher’s Eighties.” Having analysed 65 charity singles she states: “They are bad. In fact the ones that were good were unsuccessful.” Whether The Anti-Heroin Project was in the ‘bad’ category or it was “Mellor and his darker forces” that consigned it to the ‘good but unsuccessful’ category is open to debate.

Listen here and you can make up your own mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2KtAOiCMHg&t=4s

David Mellor’s competing campaign went by the name ‘Heroin screws you up’ and used a more negative fear-based anti-drugs message. The campaign was designed to provoke fear in potential users and so change their risky behaviour, on an understanding perhaps that the drug was ultimately an individual choice. From the government’s point of view, drug use was something to be feared, therefore people who take drugs were people who could be stigmatised. Heroin was the target, with its roots in inner city deprivation and poverty, rather than the more glamorous powder cocaine favoured by the wealthy. This approach left little room for the sense of empathy and shared community seemingly preferred by the drug treatment providers.

Why though, if Foskett’s ‘darker forces’ theory is correct, would the government have been reluctant to see ‘It’s Live-in World’ succeed? Perhaps a hint can be found in a quote from TV presenter and journalist Michael Buerk reflecting on Live Aid

“Britain was five years into the Margaret Thatcher era; Ronald Reagan had been in the White House for nearly four years. Everywhere, the notions of a corporate state and welfare socialism, the consensus politics of the post war world, were in retreat. But even those who believe were long overdue, by definition the majority of those who voted in the elections, seemed to be uneasy about it. Market driven individualism might work better with the grain of human nature, it might make most of us more prosperous but it sometimes made us feel selfish. There was something obscene about piling up mountains of food we could not eat while millions starved to death, a few hours’ flying time away.”

And this from musician Gary Kemp

“Live Aid gave everyone the opportunity to do something above and beyond government and make political change internationally with their postal orders, their chequebooks, their piggy banks and credit cards and whatever. What came out of Live Aid was a sense of people power that was so strong that it’s carried on and on to Red Nose Days and everything else in the area of television and fund-raising and charitable concerts.”

Perhaps then the government at the time was reluctant to see another high profile people-power driven cultural phenomenon, so soon after Band Aid/Live Aid, addressing issues related to government policy in a forum outside of government control.