Hillsborough Justice Tour 2012 – The John Robb Diary

The Justice Tonight tour is the most legendary UK tour of the last twelve months. Put together as a one off gig in support of the campaign for justice for the 96 football fans who died at Hillsborough, it quickly turned into a tour.

The initial idea was for Mick Jones from The Clash to join Pete Wylie and the Farm and play a few songs for a key cause. It suddenly gained momentum when Mick agreed to play Clash songs for the first time for thirty years. The tour was a sold out, emotional, political ride through British rock 'n' roll culture which every night was joined by guests like The Stone Roses playing their first ever show together since they reformed, the Manic Street Preachers, Richard Hawley, and even Eric Cantona guesting in France as well as a near Clash reformation.

Backstage the gigs were something else with guests from MPs like Tom Watson and Steve Rotherham to underground political figures, authors, madmen and rock 'n' rollers. Every night was full of great, legendary stories…

Hillsborough disaster remains one of the world’s worst football disaster and the worst stadium-related disaster in British history. The tragedy occurred during the FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest football clubs on 15 April 1989 at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. As a result of overcrowded enclosures, 96 people were crushed to death and 766 others were injured.

Investigation into the cause of the disaster gave way to infected controversies about who was to blame. In 2012 the Hillsborough Independent Panel concluded that no Liverpool fans were responsible and that attempts had been made by the authorities to conceal what had happened, including the alteration of 164 statements relating to the disaster by the police.

On December 17 the Hillsborough charity single, He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (Hillsborough Tribute), was released featuring amongst others Sir Paul McCartney, Mick Jones from The Clash, Robbie Williams and former Spice Girl Mel C. The song is a cover of The Hollies’ 1969 hit with the same name.

10 percent of profits from the book will go to the Hillsborough charity fund.

John Robb is the award winning indie music mainstay, frontman of punk rock band Goldblade, music author of best selling books including The Stone Roses And The Resurrection Of British Pop and Punk Rock — An oral History. Journalist, TV presenter, regular TV and radio pundit as well the boss of one of the UK’s top 5 music culture website Louder Than War. He was the first person to interview Nirvana and The Stone Roses and invented the term Britpop.