Rising Voices

Born and bred to Indian Parents settling in Birmingham in the 60’s, Satpal Ram , aged 20 in 1986, went to a local Indian restaurant with friends. When six white people acted to provoke a situation using verbal and racist abuse, Ram reacted firmly. One of the abusers, Stuart Pearce , stabbed him in the face with a broken glass, he self-defenced with a knife, accidently killing Pearce. Until July 2000, journalists were not allowed to interview prisoners serving life sentences for murder, regardless of any claims of wrongful conviction ;  The Guardian published a disturbing story after visiting a 34 year old man who had spent 13 years in prisons around England . Prior to 2000, the only method Ram’s family had to get his voice heard due to miscarriage of justice, racism and physical abuse in jail, was to make big noise in the nascent British-Asian music scene of the mid 90’s while All things Asian were also emerging. London born and bred but signed to Virgin France , Asian Dub Founda