Null And Void – Xntrix Cassettes / Not So Brave Records – 1982

Pete Nothing – Rape Ads / Null And Void – Only Seventeen / Can’t Hide / Sometimes I Get So Lonely / Still / Me And My Actor

Null And Void – Four Minute Warning / God’s Only Words / Still Lonely / Blank Pages / An Old Way / Pete Nothing – Fads

Still

Crap / Cold War

Null And Void were a band from around the Yeovil area formed in 1980. Closely alligned to Yeovil’s other band at the time, The Mob, the original members of Null And Void were Mark Hedge, Adie Tompkins and Andrew Barker. Barker had already previously released a record on the All The Madmen record label under the name Andy Stratton, along with The Mob’s then drummer Graham Fallows. Both The Mob and Null And Void members lived together in a shared commune in Seend a village in Wiltshire. Adie Tompkins would eventually perform drumming duties for The Mob for a short time after Graham decided to leave that band. Eventually most of The Mob and Null And Void members decided to leave the sticks and chance squatting in London. Brougham Road in Hackney was the area where the bands shared bus ended up and parked up. Zounds, a close ally to both bands on the newly arrived bus had secured some property in that street a few months previously.

Both of these releases uploaded today were recorded and engineered by Pete Fender at the Xntrix studio situated in the basement of the Poison Girls house in Leytonstone. The band by the time of recordings had a new drummer in Josef Porta who had been staying in Brougham Road with the other members of Zounds. Josef of course later joined The Mob, and continues to perform today with Blyth Power. Delia supplied some backing vocals and Pete Nothing added a couple of poems on the sessions that would be released on the cassette. Pete Nothing was not Pete Fender incidently in case anyone wondered…

After a couple of tours in Belgium with The Mob and Zounds, Null And Void were approached by Not So Brave Records who were based in Belgium. The band recorded the sessions, again with Pete Fender at Xntrix, that would end up as the only 7″ single that was released in the band’s lifetime. The sleeve artwork for the single was completed by Dave Williams who was the brother of Steve Ignorant, vocalist for Crass (a fact that Dave did not like being made public to many folk in those days as the two siblings did not get on that well supposedly, according to a member of Null And Void!)

By the time these recordings were released, the band were performing a fair few gigs in and around London including a set at the Zig Zag squat gig, Westbourne Park organised by Andy Palmer and Penny Rimbaud of Crass along with members of The  Kill Your Pet Puppy Collective and Andy Martin of The Apostles in December 1982.

These releases contain absolutely wonderful material by Null And Void, material which still sounds incredibly strong today.

Andy Stratton’s debut 7″ single released on All The Madmen Records in 1980 can be listened to on this site HERE

7 comments
  1. DavidM
    DavidM
    February 27, 2010 at 2:50 pm

    Null and Void’s complete recordings have been collected on a CD called All Burnt Out. For more information and on how to obtain a copy plus peruse the various photos and more, visit the band’s official page here: http://www.null-and-void.com/

  2. luggy
    luggy
    February 28, 2010 at 2:15 pm

    Used to love this band, shame that they weren’t better recognised.

  3. expletive undeleted
    expletive undeleted
    February 28, 2010 at 4:18 pm

    I haven’t heard that single in about 25 years. Cheers chaps!

  4. Steve
    Steve
    April 4, 2010 at 1:47 pm

    Sorry to be so dim but who exactly is the “Dave” referred to in the text as I can’t work it out.

    And is the Delia on backing vocals the same Delia who was later in Mambo Taxi and millions of other bands or a different Delia altogether?!

  5. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    April 4, 2010 at 2:24 pm

    Re: Dave

    The sleeve artwork for the single was completed by Dave who was the brother of Steve Ignorant, vocalist for Crass (a fact that Dave did not like being made public to many folk in those days according to a member of Null And Void)

    A fact told to me by Josef Porta. Dave was the younger brother of Crass vocalist Steve Ignorant.

    Delia, not sure if she did anyhing after this recording. You may well be right not sure!

  6. Steve
    Steve
    April 4, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    Thanks Penguin. I wondered if he was also a member of Null and Void and just wasn’t mentioned in the text but obviously not!

  7. Joe Hedge
    Joe Hedge
    August 20, 2023 at 12:13 am

    Aha yes! That’s our Punkle Mark!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *