London‘s streets have burned before, and not only during the Great Fire of 1666 or the Luftwaffe‘s 1940 „Blitz“. The late 1970s saw England‘s economy mired in recession, mass unemployment leaving youth alienated, angry and without hope. The streets burned with a continuous series of clashes between angry young people and authorities, playing out conflicts over racism and class inequality that lasted well in the mid-1980s. The drama and violence of those clashes also proved to be a cauldron of creativity, producing some of Britain‘s most memorable music of the same era. Herewith, a personal playlist.