1981 Toxteth Riots - Toxteth Riots in Popular Culture

Toxteth Riots in Popular Culture

• The riots feature prominently in Liverpool native Kevin Sampson's novel Stars Are Stars. The book's protagonist helps the rioters/protesters by taking photographs of police brutality before and during the riots.
• Rapper Braintax mentions the Toxteth riots in his song "Opening Titles": "I've been rapping since the Toxteth riots / So you new jack American wannabes need to stay quiet".
• The riots took place whilst The Specials' song "Ghost Town" was topping the UK Singles Chart. The song had been written in response to the earlier - though less serious - riots in Coventry, and was released at a time when unrest had broken out in several parts of London and the rest of England.
• Two songs by local bands responded to the 'uprising' of 1981 shortly after the event: Public Disgrace's hardcore punk 45, "Toxteth", and Cook Da Books' 12" single "Piggy in the Middle Eight", its haunting dub side, "Gone to Black", with reggae producer Dennis Bovell at the controls, including many theme tunes from TV cop series. Both records were issued on Liverpool's Probe Plus label.
• Local band The Rialto Burns named themselves after the Liverpool Echo headline which featured a burning Rialto Ballroom, set alight during the riots. The venue, which had played host to The Beatles, was eventually razed to the ground.
• In series 8, episode 7 of Shameless, Mimi Maguire (Tina Malone) mentions the Toxteth Riots several times.
• In season 6, episode three of "Crossing Jordan", mentioned that his father owned a shop on Selbourne Road during the riots, and that he and his father were stuck in the middle of the violence. When he and his father returned to the shop, it had been burned down.