ON February 22 2025, the day before the pivotal general election in Germany, as Project 2025 dismantled democracy in the US and called for a vote for the fascist AfD, Laibach completed the greatest performance I have ever seen in any art form, one born in their brave live gig during the siege of Sarajevo in 1995. I walked out of Islington Town Hall enthused and inspired, and the feeling is still there.

I gave it a while to reflect on things, because I didn’t want to be overcome by the emotion of the moment. I compared it to the Clash at the Rainbow in ’77, the first time I saw Bolan in 1970 aged 13, the Rock against Racism carnivals, some of the gigs I did for Anti-Fascist Action in the 1980s and the most memorable other gigs I’ve done myself — 44 years and about 4,000 of them. 

And I’m sure. Because of the time in which it is taking place and the brilliance of the material, Laibach’s performance that night was the most powerful, relevant, inspirational concert in any musical or artistic form I have ever experienced. And I’m 67. 

What was it? A warning to the future from the past. A requiem for a harmonious society born from war and destroyed by money. A heartfelt cry from a collective formed in Tito’s Yugoslavia who performed in Sarajevo during the siege in 1995 after “Brotherhood and Unity” was replaced as a slogan by “hate and war” and the clueless Western bleating about “fweedom of speech” became, as so many knew it would, freedom to commit ethnic cleansing. “War ender” Trump as the anti-Tito, the nationalist, the harbinger of division. 

Starting with a paean to Tito and the days of hope, The Great Seal, with the 1940 U.K. rallying call to our allies in Yugoslavia to “fight them on the beaches.” The magnificent industrial masterpiece We Forge The Future. Both accompanied by films of the post-war reconstruction, the glorious days of brotherhood and unity. 

Finishing with their ridiculous versions of Opus’s Life Is Life and Foreigner’s I Wanna Know What Love Is in the days of despair. Parody as howl of affirmation of the simple fact that life is better than death. 

And then the alternative with Strange Fruit: death — in Gaza now, in the America Project 2025 wants to bring back. A premonition of Hell. A call to arms: but at this stage to “mental fight,” to realisation of what is at stake, rather than to weapons of war.

Laibach is a collective, doing its best to forge a future which is the exact opposite of Trump’s. Vier Personen. Four changing people, sometimes more. Vocalist Milan Fras at centre forward the only fixture really, masterminded by Ivan “Jani” Novak, not an onstage participant here, but ever-present in the project. 

Brotherhood and unity. So needed on the left right now. So needed everywhere. Art reflecting life in the finest social surrealist concert I have ever seen.

And, in tribute to them, my most recent poem on the nightmare unfolding before our eyes. 

Of course, this poem is centred on England’s and my father’s experience rather than the world’s. I am aware of that. 
 
WILFRED, SIEGFRIED & MY DAD

The days of innocence are over now:
Though we still stand for how things ought to be
And ideology’s outdated too
Where rabbit hole fake news is currency.
Old shibboleths must go into the bin:
The ones of social class, country and race. 
Our allies now from every walk of life.
Our foes as well, much to their own disgrace.
 
The days of innocence are over now.
You’ll say ‘twas never innocence at all
And thus ignore one simple, obvious truth:
We never heard conscription’s siren call. 
My father saw two separate World Wars
In Civil Service Rifles and Home Guard 
While we grew strong in peace and Welfare State —
Although for many still the path was hard. 
 
My father read me Owen and Sassoon
In those few ten short years before he died
Theirs was no just war, of course they knew:
‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ warmongers lied 
But still they fought. Their hopeless sacrifice
A lifelong lesson learned when I was ten.
I think of Wilfred, Siegfried and my dad
As the whole nightmare rears its head again.

Love, peace and solidarity.