Also, they were a good excuse to sing the lyrical verses of Chile's sadly dead Victor Jara (one of Pinochet's many victims), Cuba's happily alive Pablo Milanes, and top tunes by our own Peter Gabriel and Hugh Hopper.

My own contribution is the lyrics to Amber and the Amberines, written for Grenada. They arose as a result of an afternoon which Alfie describes to Mike King: "We were at home in Twickenham when we heard on the mid-day news that the US had invaded Grenada. we were so angry, we felt we had to do something. I quickly made a placard with a strip of wood and a piece of hardboard I'd just primed for a painting, and asked Robert what to write on it. In the heat of his anger, he decided on a very rude, and rather puerile message. We all got in the car (Robert, my mother, me and the pregnant dog) and drove straight to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square. There was no-one outside except a couple of policemen and a police woman. They had already put up a barrier outside the Embassy and were obviously expecting protesters. For about an hour and a half we were the only people there. It Occurred to me that no doubt somebody inside the Embassy would be taking photos for 'the files', and it still makes me laugh to imagine that an odd group of subversives we would seem to the people responsible for checking these photographs. A man in a wheelchair, an old lady, a pregnant dog, me, and a very rude placard. The policewoman asked my mother who she represented. "Old Age Pensioners" she replied, in her Polish accent. More police arrived, and eventually the main body of demonstrators turned up, mobilised by the MJM. Among these was Chris Searle, who had recently returned from working in Grenada, and was devastated by the whole business. He was near to tears and said to Robert that he should do a song for Grenada. That's how 'Amber and the Amberines' came about."

Amber and the Amberines' is the name of  a military exercise conducted by the US covertly, on a Puerto Rican beach I believe. The name being an obvious euphemism for Grenada and the Grenadines. It was a rehearsal for invading a Caribbean island. It took place not long before the invasion of Grenada, but well before the sudden mysterious internal conflict within the socialist government which became the official justification for the US invasion.

'Yolanda', the Cuban love song, is dedicated to the memory of the Cuban construction workers, helping to build the international civil airport in Grenada, who were killed during the invasion.