Unite Against Fascism - Fraction of the Cost - The Ringside 19/09/2004 continued By Andy Dykes

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It's very refreshing to hear, given the potential for dogmatic self righteousness to run the show at an event such as this and for all their musical brutality, it's nice to know that Fraction of the Cost are a band who think. And despite this musical brutality, I never get the impression that this is a band just playing as hard and as fast as it can purely for the sake of it. This is a band with real passion and fire. If they were singing Spice Girls songs I'd believe them.

Fraction of the Cost's final song steal's both its chord sequence and its vocal melody from The Offspring's 'Self Esteem'. I'm guessing that it's a post-modern statement on American commercialism and its ills, but I could just be reading into things a little too deeply. As the song progresses, the familiar melody gives way to true hardcore chaos in the form of insanely fast musicianship and roaring vocals, reaffirming my theory that it's an effort to subvert the establishment. But I'm open to suggestions that I could be wrong. Fraction of the Cost are the perfect band to headline an evening such as this. They are a band with a message, and a valuable one at that. Their political speeches are sensible and thought provoking and combined with their music, pack a lot of force.

It's a little hard to see though what tonight has achieved. People are making speeches to like minded people about subjects that both feel strongly about in exactly the same way. There's an element of preaching to the converted. But the most important message of the night comes from Silver Fox of Cracktown. "Apathy is rife" he says. And he's right. The BNP have recently gained another seat in a constituency who I'm sure would prefer not to have them there at all. The only problem is that people haven't been turning out to vote. But that's the thing with voting. People feel that their vote won't count; that the party or person they vote for won't win.

But voting shouldn't be about having voted for the winning side. Ideally, yes of course it would. But that's not the nature of democracy. Voting's about sharing opinions with other people, and combining these opinions into a voice. And if all those people who never seem to vote for the winner stop voting, then the winner, who or whatever it is, will always keep winning. And parties like the BNP will get a foothold. But if we all get off our arses, and have a say about what really matters, these parties like the BNP with their passionate supporters who use their vote, won't have a voice anymore. And that's worth voting for.

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