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Notting Hill Carnival '83

Vivien Goldman, New Musical Express, 3 September 1983

CARNIVALS ARE crucial — all the best cultures have 'em. But the world has a way of perverting the simplest pleasures, and since 76, Carnival has become a euphemism for flashpoint; for the last couple of years, and this year too, the aggro has been postponed to a last-minute binge that takes place in almost ritual fashion, when the tourists have gone home. The trouble takes place among the problem professionals, who've been hanging around on the street corner outside the old Apollo pub, closed for months, that used to be a hopping centre for all forms of social exchange, till Bass Charrington closed it down after too many horrashocka stories in the Sunday Nasty. They watch the police go by in twos like the animals in the Ark, at five-minute intervals, cursing them and sucking their teeth in annoyance, vowing vengeance for this hampering of their street sales, come Carnival.

Total word count of piece: 1291

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