Lauren Booth has lived through tumultuous times: a comrade in arms of the antiwar movement, she has stood alongside Tony Benn, marched against the Iraq War and was one of the first people to break the siege of Gaza in 44 years. She now explores a life of activism, celebrity, and her conversion to Islam over a decade ago, in her one-woman show set to debut at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She also hopes to improve diversity and expel some of the negative Muslim stereotyping found in today’s politics, arts, and media. So, we invited her into the studio to tell us what to expect.
The start of July marked World Reggae Day, celebrating a musical genre that exploded onto the world more than half a century ago. One British band more than any other has pumped out classics which have stood the test of time and are still filling dance-floors and concert venues all over the world. UB40 was the name of a form you filled in when you were unemployed, the band which adopted the name of this form somehow captured the Zeitgeist of the massive army of the unemployed who began to flood the streets of Mrs. Thatcher’s Britain. Brian Travers of UB40 has been a musical, cultural, and political icon through 40 years and counting. He came into the Sputnik studio to tell us more.
