When so many musicians dabble in activist chic when it suits their current publicity campaign, it’s refreshing to highlight someone whose credentials are indisputable and whose stance is both long term and consistent. These re-releases come as Manu Chao features in several festivals across the country touring last years La Radiolina, and indeed he was about the only invigorating thing about (my admittedly armchair and BBC controlled viewing of) this year’s Glastonbury. He was born politicised as his parents were forced émigrés from Franco’s Spain, and early influences for his first bands spawned from the multi-cultural Parisian suburbs included, as you might have guessed, the Clash and Bob Marley. Later Chao became a friend of Joe Strummer, in itself a rarity as he usually shuns hob-knobbing with the famous. Initial big European success came with the lively French punk of Mano Negra in the late eighties, but they split largely under the strain imposed by Chao’s uncompromising attitude – touring South America by specially converted ship-cum-performance-space and specially converted train. [read more @ TLOBF.com]