*1945
Ken Livingstone was born in Lambeth, South London in 1945 and entered Labour Party politics in 1971. He was elected leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until it was abolished in 1986, and as an independent became the first directly elected Mayor of London in May 2000. His music career is slightly lower-profile: Livingstone provided spoken word vocals for the track "Ernold Same" on Blur's "The Great Escape", and was listed as "The Right On Ken Livingstone" in the credits. He followed this up with a live performance of the same on 2 July 2000 at the Royal Festival Hall, London.