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I don't really agree with every bit of this, especially the sympathy towards electoral politics and trade unionism. It's sort of interesting though how Thompson was critiquing rock music, and its ineffectiveness at changing anything, before it really took off (this was written in 1959),

Sometimes the protest is just against; against nothing, as in the rock ‘n roll riots. Sometimes we catch a glimpse of the immense potential of human energy and sympathy draining away for lack of channels of expression; the unutilised yearnings for something positive with which to identify oneself that find expression in gang-belongingness, or the desires to find a meaning in life which went to inflate the mass emotionality of Billy Grahame’s tours.

I wasn't aware of it, but it seems rock-and-roll subcultures like the "Teddy Boys" were heavily involved in the 1958 Notting Hill race riots. I'm guessing that's part of what Thompson is referring to when he mentions "rock 'n roll riots," along with rebellious youths more generally. It seems like there were also rock-and-roll riots at screenings of the film Blackboard Jungle in 1956, owing in part to its rock-and-roll soundtrack.