"Stephanie Villalba, the former Merrill Lynch executive who has lost the bulk of her £7.5 million discrimination claim against the bank, ought to have known her former boss Ausaf Abbas was made of fighting spirit. He was once a mean bass player in punk rock band Alien Kulture, with songs including the racism protest song 'Culture Crossover'. With that form, Abbas was never going to let Villalba get away with her allegation of Merrill's institutional sexism..."
Precursors of today's Asian Dub Foundation, Alien Kulture were formed around the nucleus of outspoken youth Ausaf Abbas and his two Asian friends. And there was a Welshman too.
The Asian Youth record (b/w Culture Crossover) was released in 1979 on Rock Against Racism. Disputed listings also mention a pressing in 1981 with the cat. no Kulture1. BBC Birmingham commissioned a feature on the band in 1980 for their Art Asia slot. The band... despite the encouraging response to the single disbanded and the Welshman returned to his homeland.
“I couldn’t play particularly well but that didn’t seem to matter. We released a single and once we were third support to Siouxsie and the Banshees...”
- Ausaf Abbas
No comments:
Post a Comment