Interview with Penny and Steve of Crass with tracks from Penis Envy – 30 minutes of rare chat!
Interesting Radio 1 interview with Steve Ignorant and Penny Rimbaud of Crass aired and recorded way back in May 1981.
Crass did not do too many interviews with radio stations, so sit back and enjoy what they had to say to the nation that were listening on that Saturday afternoon when this was originally aired.
Gee artwork above from the Crass magazine ‘International Anthem’ issue 2.
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Martin C
February 1, 2009 at 6:18 pmTommy Vance is a fucking god.
John Serpico
February 1, 2009 at 11:00 pmI taped this when it was originally broadcast and it was on a Saturday afternoon, not a Friday night. God is in the detail – or should that be Tommy Vance is in the detail? Sorry…
Penguin • Post Author •
February 2, 2009 at 1:07 amTommy Vance ‘Rock On’ show was always on a Friday night. Never changed as far as I can remember, is there a problem with my dates? Would probably not worry about my text too much John as it was a long time ago and possibly I maybe a few hours out, I dunno.
But bottom line is that the interview was broadcast and these are the results, end of… 😉
luggy
February 2, 2009 at 11:48 amAnyone got his show with J Rotten. Wouldn’t mind hearing that again.
Terence Johnson
February 2, 2009 at 12:21 pmthis is an outrage. how can the so called ‘experts’ on this site provide wrong dates and then expect to be taken seriously as an authority on the history of punk? i enjoy collating information in a series of notebooks on every date in the punk era in the most accurate detail and if you cannot determine whether the show was broadcast on a friday night or on a sunday afternoon then this is hindering my attempts to accurately compile my notebooks. if your children were told that world war 2 began in october 1939 you would call for the dismissal of the teacher who said that! is some research too much to ask for, even if it is a website, remember that thousands of people probably read this and accept the information you provide, the result is that they are recieving false information – and my notebooks are being ruined due to this incompetence!
Nic
February 2, 2009 at 2:26 pmClassic post!
Terence – could you check your notebooks for me and let me know when Terry and the Idiots split up?
I’m sure it was a Sunday afternoon (about 28 minutes before ‘Songs of Praise’), but I just wanted to check as my friend is convinced it was a Saturday just after ‘Basil Brush’…
Cheers!
Terence Johnson
February 2, 2009 at 3:04 pmjust for you Nic: I’ve retreived the relevent notebook and will read the entry but please be aware all material is my copyright:
“January 14th 1983: the war of the subcultures continues, relentless in its fury. Armageddon itself has descended on the stately borough of Kings Cross. The bedraggled punks army are tired, cold and hungry. Most wish to ask of London only this question: WHEN SHALL WE SEE SUNSHINE AGAIN OR FEEL THE WARMTH OF HOT WATER ON OUR SKIN.
The newest sensation of the underground cinema: betamax copies in circulation of the 1981 film DOA. A film constructed from scraps of the late 1970s. A Generation X perfromance in a pub filmed on the afternoon of 19 April 1978. An X-ray spex performance captured in the director’s web of celluloid; indeliably archived for posterity, both in the studio (14 April 1978) and at premier punk club the Roxy (9 January 1978).
Terry and the idiots have made their debut in this film though history informs us that this group met its demise on 24 March 1980 (see notebook 19): unbooked and disuaded by many a Hackney pub manager’s gimlet eye, the band fell apart on this date after an argument over a woman. Oh woe of man, many a comrade has fallen into a state of quarrel over this pernicuous creature! And it seems that the release of DOA has not encouraged our band of rebel workers to consider reformation. Hackneys ‘punk heros’ lie defeated (NB – this is to be the case untill the label of ‘Hackney punk heros’ is attached to the Apostles, who would years later venture into the sonic malestrom with their terrifying single…THE CURSE OF THE CREATURE!!!”
(ALL MATERIAL (C) TERENCE JOHNSON)
Nic
February 2, 2009 at 3:51 pmHellfire! March 24 was a Monday!
It’s much more likely to be an episode of ‘Rentaghost’…
Thanks Terence!
Jay Vee
February 2, 2009 at 11:25 pm**Response in appropriate measure to original post of band/artist alert**
Just to let folk know that Steve Ignorant will be performing at this years Durham Punk Festival – Saturday 12th September 2009
(with a full backing band, possibly same people that he hired for the Feeding Of The 5000 event in November 2007, and so more than likely to be a full Crass set)
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=14461286&blogID=464094909
chris
February 2, 2009 at 11:43 pmI wasn’t fussed with all the bah-humbugging that accompanied the Feeding of the 5,000 do at Shepherd’s Bush – it was for a good cause, I went along, met a load of folk I hadn’t seen for over 25 years and had a healthy drink and a good night out. Wouldn’t have expected anything more. But that Durham ‘Punk Festival’ (ugghh) really does sound a load of crap. Whichever way it’s looked at, for better or worse, it really is ‘playing the game’, taking the dollar and a total betrayal of everything Crass represented. Doesn’t bother me but a lot of folk WILL take it to heart and Ol’ Steve must be pretty thick skinned if he thinks he won’t receive a right royal flaying for signing up to this ‘un. Bad move boyo.
Jay Vee
February 3, 2009 at 12:13 amWell maybe Steve was hoping that he can still represent what Crass had to offer as a ‘Punk’ band as a form of entertainment this time round, after all the exhaustive militant work of ’77 – ’84 that Crass were active, 7 years and still more than 20 years later even worse wars etc., Steve wanted to form Crass as a Punk movement musically more than any of the others (except maybe for Pete Wright) anyway, Penny Rimbaud’s love for Steve was the 7 years commitment he gave to fulfill Steve’s desire musically, and I reckon the northern punkers will embrace him for what he’s doing, the venue is at Durham University, the event has many keen gig goers of the Punk scene as it is today, a lot of them being the younger generation that have never had the chance to see Crass, and so why not…
If the people that tend to criticise Steve Ignorant for the Shepherd’s Bush Feeding Of The 5000 event are gonna share your opinion that an all day Punk festival in Durham is gonna be crap, wait till they get wind of Colin Jerwood’s ‘Gathering Of The Thousands’ 12 hour event planned for Holiday Friday 10th April 2009 at The Coronet Theatre in London’s Elephant & Castle…
Surely the re-explosion / nostalgic trip of the current Punk scene in all it’s differing sub genres (ska punk / anarcho punk / D-beat / Oi punk etc.) is still a way of bringing people together, especially as you mentioned, people that haven’t seen each other for 20 – 25 years, that’s what these events cater for – people that can still respect each other and be mates but are not afraid to like different music. People that are aloof and detached because you mix it with Cockney Rejects or Goldblade etc, and can leave the hippy in you that you developed in you when Crass split in ’84 at home, for an evening of Steve Ignorant alongside Cockney Rejects, need to get over it, and realise Steve Ignorant first had Punk in his veins before becoming seriously political, and now the bloke wants to enjoy himself.
Nice to see a bit of colour at a gig these days too, much as I was a big part of the Crass scene back in the day and loved ’em and other anarcho bands, 30 years of black and white and drab greyness is not my cup of tea anymore, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that thinking – time to let down the barriers that Crass weren’t really supposed to be creating at gigs and within the punk scene in general.
chris
February 3, 2009 at 1:15 amApologies, perhaps I didn’t put it across well in my first post. Personally, i’ve really no time for all the ‘preciousness’ that surrounds Crass now. Apart from mates bands and the odd gig I haven’t really been to see many punk acts since the early 80s cos it’s just not really my thing or my scene. Also, if Steve wants to make himself a few quid out of his legacy all well and good to him. He certainly didn’t first time around. You’d have to be pretty mean spirited to begrudge him that. Apart from the fact that if you weren’t a member of Crass it’s not any of your business what he does or if he takes his Steve Ignorant Revue to Caesar’s Palace. Also, reading his contributions to George’s book, one thing that I detected an undercurrent of was just how frustrating he evidently found so many of the reasons he originally wanted to ‘be in a band for’ perpetually thwarted due to having to maintain the ascetic image foistered upon them.
However, that does not detract from the fact that whatever the message he’s singing, this gig does see him stepping over the line into ‘Entertainment’ and for all their faults that is one thing Crass always strove to avoid.
But at the end of the day if it was me who was faced with the choice of making some money from doing what I love, travelling about and enjoying myself or adhering to some false perception that had been cultivated around me I know what i’d choose.
John No Last Name
February 3, 2009 at 2:01 amIf Steve Ignorant goes onstage at the ‘Durham punk festival’ and does one of his Punch and Judy shows instead of playing any songs it will be the single most punk thing of his career, but I know that’s just wishful thinking on my part.
alistairliv
February 3, 2009 at 7:25 amIf County Durham sounds dull, why not try County Donegal? Ambleside’s most famous export – A Touch of Hysteria – will be playing a Punx Picnic in County Donegal on 28 June 2009.
http://www.myspace.com/atoh1982
Nic
February 3, 2009 at 11:23 amSpot on, John…
🙂
Personally, I have no interest in these ‘Crass-aoke’ events (particularly as the motivation behind them seems to be largely based on economics and nostalgia)…and wild horses couldn’t drag me to Durham (or anywhere else) to see that clapped-out bunch of entertainers…
Chris: I would disagree with “the fact that if you weren’t a member of Crass it’s not any of your business what he does or if he takes his Steve Ignorant Revue to Caesar’s Palace.”
alistairliv
February 3, 2009 at 12:37 pmIts commodification, innit? [Note -I have inserted “anarcho-punk” into in following definitions of commodification sampled from various sources]
In Marxist political economy, commodification takes place when economic value is assigned to something not previously considered in economic terms; for example, an idea like anarcho-punk identity or gender. So commodification refers to the expansion of market trade to previously non-market areas, and to the treatment of things e.g. anarcho-punk as if they were a tradable commodity.
Commodification means the transformation of anarcho-punk relationships, formerly untainted by commerce, into commercial relationships, relationships of exchange, of buying and selling. “Commodification” is a term that only come into currency in 1977, but expresses a concept fundamental to Marx’s understanding of the way capitalism develops. Marx and Engels described the process in 1848 in the Communist Manifesto:
“The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand … has left no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”… The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the anarchist punk rockers into its paid wage labourers.”
However, any discussion of commodification today must extend to the cultural economy. It turns out that people are most sensitive to the effects of commodification in the cultural arena. Paradoxically, anarcho-punk promotes commodification while simultaneously denying it. Anarcho-punk blankets the cash nexus with narratives and signifiers that position the meaning of the commodity within non-commodified relations. [The DIY ethic etc.]
While anarcho-punk discourse spectacularizes the power of the commodity to enhance social relations to the point that the commodity itself mediates the successful playing of a social role, it disguises the production process by either absence, abstraction, or aestheticization. Furthermore, anarcho-punk absents the amount of labor necessary to produce the cash equivalent to participate in the exchange. As anarcho-punk seeps into every nook and cranny of our social lives, it becomes increasingly difficult to take a critical position toward the process of commodification. Nevertheless, the many forms of anarcho-punk address that deny this process in some form suggest a nostalgic desire to live in a non-commodified world.
chris
February 3, 2009 at 4:14 pmNik: I would disagree with “the fact that if you weren’t a member of Crass it’s not any of your business what he does or if he takes his Steve Ignorant Revue to Caesar’s Palace.”
Just out of interest, why? Isn’t that like ME trying to dictate to you about what you do as a musician? Or if, say, Black Ocean were offered £2,000 to play the Vienna Sound Art Festival is that really any different (outwith the nature of the event and any ‘ethic’ the band may have espoused) to Steve playing this Durham do?
Isn’t your objection getting into “Crass Meant This” or “But Crass said that” territory? Because, obviously for Steve the goal-posts have changed.
baron von zubb
February 3, 2009 at 4:49 pmAint listened to this yet but wanted to post and this is is the first thread and its sort of related..So watchin’ me nephew get his first guitar in his new build small town home owner suburban surroundings; he’s 14, dad’s fucked off to SA, leaving his straight ‘A’ son and single mum.
Seeing the expression on his face as he plink plonks his way through ‘I wanna be your dog’ and ‘Smoke on the water’, the two easiest things to do, and ALL I can on the bass string..So all I could show him till he has lessons..
And vooom, as he lost himself for a moment, his face gets that expression that comes from producing those power chords or imaginining you are…
All of his possible life flashed in front of him.
And infront of me. Thats how it was being a 16 year old punk in a band.
He can be anyone.
He can, if he wants, be a rock n roller. Or a dixie roller. Or a jazzanista, funkster or DJ.
He can enter the musical / expressive / artistic / creative / boho arena
And it struck me how powerful a force the blues is.
In whatever form.
It really is the portal to an incredible journey that ‘straight’ people just dont do. But that all artists do.
And as its a simple art to learn, a commoners art, it has a special place.
After discovering Linkin Park, he was inspired by hearing (his uncle BVZ in) the H band on this site – anyone can do it – and asked for an ‘axe’ that his folks got him for xmas.
So much better than the competetive Wii or killing on COD 5, no?
So cheers Mr Michael & KYPP (and Sam & Si ) for putting it all up here.
I’m sure this story is only one of many similar.
And maybe him and his mates will be the Crass of the next decade, urging political rebellion in his very own recession.
And if not, they’ll have a bloody good time trying.
Steve Ig is an aging – anarcho punk – rocker n roller like us all.
Good luck to him.
From viva la rock to viva la revolution.
Its fuckin’ great.
Eeh oop…
Jay Vee
February 3, 2009 at 5:01 pmInteresting, and I guess the only real way to trade as an Anarchist in it’s purest sense devoid of the need of an organised Authority would be to barter? Example, The Mob in whatever guise decides to reform but want to keep their integrity as a once ‘Anarchist’ band (fed up of the anarcho label, which wasn’t widely adopted pre 1980’s) and although quite happy to accept that they’re reforming on a more nostalgic trip basis, would still like to keep their integrity of the DIY spirit intact… thus instead of trading a Government currency such as coins and notes, the flyers advise us to bring along ethically sourced food, a benefit gig would be most appropriate if it’s speculated to be a real evocative DIY gig, and not just limited to food, other essential commodities, that would need evaluating for the worth, thus scoring the person ‘points’ on a ticket to get you into the event, and cutting out the Government’s own currency system, but as Harry Hill fondly reminds us, “You’ve gotta have a System!” – There were a group of people that had a bartering system, I’m sure you’ve heard of Alistair, that based the work in hours they done of skilled labour, then traded with other skilled labour the same time in hours, that’s the kind of point I’m trying to make about the only way I can see a true ‘Anarchist’ band or Vegan wholefood store, book store or whatever could truly trade commodity of their culture without it being criticised as commodification in a Capitalist way…
Or how about a ‘Pay what you feel’ price on the door, that would provide bands with practical hard cash as we know it that is necessary for fuel for their vehicles, (although surely they should be travelling with alternative powered vehicles such as solar-powered?) that would also reduce the snobbery and something that has been felt as an undercurrent of bands mentioned in posts many times on this site; ‘elitism’, and as Chris mentioned in his recent response ‘preciousness’ of some artists…
slyme68
February 3, 2009 at 5:22 pmcommodification? could not continuing to perform crass as a living thing be considered a detournement?
poking around in punky blogs, it seems that a lot of people can’t/don’t differentiate between the oi and the anarcho, last resort posted alongside flux etc with no embarrassment/sense of irony. talking of shepherd’s bush, did you notice how many of the audience left after the gig and went and got a mcdonalds?
if the anarcho bands left the revival of interest entirely to those who were criticised in the first round, could not the alternative get entirely lost? is the debate not worth having any more? are we not concerned that the first wildcat strikes for twenty five years seem to be based on nationalism?
any performance, record or book is by its nature a commodity. they were commodities in the seventies and they’re commodities now.
a lot of us were turned on by the clash and the pistols, they in turn were turned on by roxy music, can, woody guthrie etc. i was never the same after the pistols were on the london weekend show – a commodity if you like – because it was in that half hour that i realised i was not the only one who felt like that… a couple of years later i was the first to borrow the erlich’s “reinventing anarchy” from hammersmith library…
it doesn’t matter, i think where a person’s starting point is. there have to be opportunities and leads to dig further, which is a good thing. how far revivalism goes and whether it develops conciousness in more people depends a bit on how and whether we support it.
anyone wanna buy a nice roll of industrial painting? shown in galleries around europe don’tchaknow.
alistairliv
February 3, 2009 at 5:38 pmJay Vee – George Monbiot – the Guardian’s tame radical – has come up with a suggestion similar to yours as an alternative to re-starting the gobal economy by flooding the banks with cash
“… there is no reason why money should take the form of sterling or be issued by the banks. Money consists only of “an agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange”. The medium of exchange could be anything, as long as everyone who uses it trusts that everyone else will recognise its value. During the Great Depression, businesses in the United States issued rabbit tails, seashells and wooden discs as currency, as well as all manner of papers and metal tokens.
In 1971, Jaime Lerner, the mayor of Curitiba in Brazil, kick-started the economy of the city and solved two major social problems by issuing currency in the form of bus tokens. People earned them by picking and sorting litter: thus cleaning the streets and acquiring the means to commute to work. Schemes like this helped Curitiba become one of the most prosperous cities in Brazil…
We need not wait for the government or the central bank to save us: we can set this system up ourselves. It costs taxpayers nothing. It bypasses the greedy banks. It recharges local economies and gives local businesses an advantage over multinationals. It can be tailored to the needs of the community. It does not require – as Eddie George, the former governor of the Bank of England, insisted – that one part of the country be squeezed so that another can prosper.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/20/george-monbiot-recession-currencies
We are living in very interesting times. For the past thirty years (since dawn of Thatcher/Reagan era) we have been part of an economic experiment – an unfettered globalised free-market where wealth would trickle down from the mega-rich to the super-poor…. but now all the trillions of dollars have been swallowed up by black holes in the banking system. Or as Marx put it in 1848
“All fixed, fast frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real condition of life and his relations with his kind.”
Nic
February 3, 2009 at 5:47 pmI would disagree Chris because – as we know – our thoughts on such matters are rather different…
Any comments I might make regarding such concerts as the one mentioned would be based on what it means NOW, rather than how it relates to the viewpoints expressed by Crass…
If people want to express a viewpoint (including by their actions), it only seems natural that such an event will generate a response, particularly as none of us live on a deserted island and are consequently affected by everything that everyone does…
However, that is in no way an attempt to ‘dictate’ anything to anyone (and I wouldn’t be comfortable in accepting such a loaded term in itself): it is expressing a viewpoint, just as these concerts express a certain viewpoint…and it was made in response to previous posts in the spirit of dialogue…I’d see that as quite removed from an attempt to ‘dictate’…
I suppose we all have different perceptions of how to act…
To give a concrete example, I am offered (with some regularity) large amounts of money (more for 1 concert that Steve Ignorant will make in the next 5 years from these concerts) to return to things I did in the past. It’s not something I choose to do – not because I want to obtain any moral high-ground (or because I am rich!), but because I have thought it through and feel that would not be something I could in good conscience support…But that’s me…
I shall now try to go back to enthusing about obscure records that might tickle someones fancy as soon as Penguin uploads some more…
😉
Nic
February 3, 2009 at 5:48 pmBugger – missed Jay, slyme and Al’s interesting posts…
No time!
back2front
February 3, 2009 at 7:07 pmHmmm… here we go again. Steve Ignorant played one event in 2007 and earned how much? Spread that over a 12 month period and it probably doesn’t amount to much. The problem for me with Feeding was the missed opportunity of recreating an attitude that appears to be sorely missing from these shores and in increasingly desperate times. Steve mentioned that we (enter definition here – peace punk/anarchopunk?) were once a threat to the establishment but why is that still not the case? Feeding gave young people the chance to hear Crass played live but in a situation stripped of its agit propaganda and social context. Will the Durham gig be the same? I can’t comment but I won’t be going.
Crass used money and resources to create product to be played on equipment made by Thorn EMI, Sony or similar corporations, just as the concurrent cassette culture depened upon BASF and TDK but there remains an illusion to this day that the peace-punk/anarcho tradition was somehow beyond the system?! Of course the famous price limitations conveyed a compromise between ideal and reality with social commentary being foremost and that’s why it was important. And it became more important because of what that inspired, when it turned into a threat, and reinspired the anarchist and pacifist traditions in the UK for a brief time.
But the concept of product does not have to be anathema, as long as the product has been made with some effort and can be said to be of quality and as long as the rate of exchange is reasonable. The arguement against capital is that it often fails in both these areas and furthermore creates several major problems as a result. However a bartering system is also based on the first two principles of quality and reasonable exchange.
Fine. Penny Rimbaud’s statement that Steve betrayed the Crass ethos is probably a combination of the above economics and the lack of political context. I would accept the latter but contend, to a degree, the former.
There’s nothing worse than the Geldof/Bono approach of the caring rock star, multi-millionaires coaxing us to give up our money to whatever charity is in vogue but unless a band’s social commentary aspires towards the something more than a few choice sentiments, a sense of principle and willingness to restrict price to emphasise idea then does it not begin to drift towards the ultimately empty posturing of the Live Aid rabble?
Yeah I know, I like to go out sometimes, see a band, meet some friends and socialise too, honestly, but it’s a social arena based around consumption rather than one based around compasion. There’s room for both to a degree but if social commentary is involved it should at least attempt to be honest…
back2front
February 3, 2009 at 7:10 pmAlistair that’s an interesting point. The current carbon rating scheme in which every household is credited with a certain amount of carbon offers another alternative currency. By saving on carbon emissions a household creates carbon credits with which to barter and offers a piece in the jigsaw towards seriously tackling climate change.
chris
February 3, 2009 at 7:25 pmNik. Either you are saying you are saying you are offered in excess of £10,000 to reform the original ND line up which sounded like The Rondos meets The Intestines with Miles, Fin & Simon (if i remember their names correctly) which to be frank I find hard to believe. Or you are offered this to return to playing with a band having, as i understand it, having only played bass on one side of their first LP. In which case, if the rest of the current – or Scum era – line-up are wanting this, why don’t you go for it? A few rehearsals, one gig and £10,000+ in your pocket? I’m sure the others wouldn’t say ‘No’. And surely you could always give your share to some deserving cause if it impacted on your conscience so badly?
Jay Vee
February 3, 2009 at 7:41 pmI’m glad Bono and Geldof were mentioned here, you brilliantly exposed them in the multi-millionaires targeting their audience on a compassion level, encouraging us to donate to some very harrowing causes, to a sickening degree of themselves still capitalising and making huge amounts of profit to fund projects that we then get told need a constant annual amount of money to maintain to be of any real solution to the 3rd world people they are supposed to be feeding etc., only to continue to stage more bigger events and charge extortionate amounts of money for tickets (even a standard U2 concert ticket will cost more than £150 these days, haven’t they secured their wealth already – in 1985 they played Milton Keynes Bowl and gave free entry on the door to anyone with proof they were receiving benefits) I could rant on and on, but I digress from the Crass ethos we’re still tackling here, I’ll just have to conclude that perhaps Steve Iggs just deserves a bit more respect than the examples of the mainstream acts I responded to just now, but in a musical following perspective, in comparison to wealth and potential levels of hypocracy from whatever a musical bands approach to care and compassion, I don’t think Crass or Steve Ignorant left any of their followers seriously out of pocket on an individual basis did they, or do Crass owe us a living? Do they do they do they do they???????
Of course they fookin’ don’t.
Mike A
February 3, 2009 at 8:40 pmMaybe it’s a chance for us people way up north (cumbria) who didn’t want the long expensive journey to the capital shitty and to stay overnight in an expensive rip offery of a roach ridden motel to see Steve Ignorant and them other pop bands.
Durhams a lovely little city and a lot nearer too.
Oh yeah this Crass radio interview was one of the first things i downloaded from this site way back in Feb 08
Jay Vee
February 4, 2009 at 12:18 amYeah apart from anything else, Durham is a great place to visit, especially Durham Cathedral (on an architechtural level, not religious, for me personally) and Cumbria is nice too of course.
Penguin • Post Author •
February 4, 2009 at 12:32 amWell spotted Mike, I am at the moment bringing forward the odd (very old) post (with no comments attached) to these recent days of 2009, now that this site has a bit more of a community to discuss the posts.
A load of Crass posts (inc this one) were originally uploaded in November 2007.
Like I write above, one man and his dog visited the site in those days, so a lot of good material was (and is still being) missed cos browsers do not have the time to go all the way back many many months looking for gems.
For any one who likes Crass, get to the November 2007 archives, scroll through to early November and you will find some excellent studio rehearsal tapes and other interviews concerning the Reagan/Thatcher tapes.
Here a shortcut to just one of the rehearsals:
https://www.killyourpetpuppy.co.uk/news/?p=125
I will be uploading fresh material as I always do, but like I say the odd old post will be brought forward and will be beefed up in the text and picture department.
To date, this Crass interview, Getting The Fear, Rosemary’s Baby, Blood and Roses and The Mob at Meanwhile Gardens are all old posts (with all new text / essays / photos) with (now) dozens of comments on them and a new batch of browsers to upload the material that they may have missed the first time around.
Personally I have no problem with Igs performing again, although I was not down the ‘Bush’.
He is a nice guy and no doubt he will get decent support from older ex Crass followers and the younger generation who never got the chance back then.
Hope it goes well for him. I will not be there in Durham, but I am sure other folk will enjoy the day and let off a bit of steam…
alistairliv
February 4, 2009 at 1:37 amBack2front – I take your point about Crass/ anarcho-punk/ DIY having to use the products of corporations like Thorn EMI., Sony, BASF, TDK. Between 1977-83 I worked in the Engineering Department of a big business – the London Rubber Company (Durex condoms, Marigold rubber gloves). In all that time I never could work out how [Zounds/Subvert] I could “be an agent and work for revolution” in the place of my employment.
I had no doubt that we (workers) could run the factories – it is what we did everyday, but I never found any enthusiasm amongst my workmates for doing so. Sure people would moan about managers and idiot directors, but ‘seizing the means of production’… no way.
But if we had had the benefit of hindsight (class consciousness / solidarity) things might have been different. In 1980/81, thanks to the monetarist policies of the Thatcher government, London Rubber went from expansion to contraction. The first LRC factory I worked in (77/78) was in Lydney, Gloucestershire. In 1981/2 it was closed down and some of the machinery moved to the east London factory where I worked.
I was really shocked – a thousand people had worked at Lydney. It was almost a family affair, with wives and husbands, sons and daughters all employed on the same site. The folk at the London end didn’t really care – they thought it meant their jobs were safe. They were wrong. A few years later (after I had left) the London factory was closed and the company got taken over. Durex are now made (where?) by SSL International plc.
If we and all the others whose factories and place of employment got shut down then had known what was going to happen…maybe we would have seized the means of production and distribution. It almost happened in France in 1968, when factories were occupied… but the ‘communist’ trade unions kept the revolting workers apart from the revolting students and wicked situationists. Thus the revolutionary spark was extinguished.
And now? If this crisis of hyper-capitalism turns recession into depression, who is going to believe that the good times will come again? The difficulty is how to turn despair into action – that another world really is possible, is achievable.
For me, the sense of possibility is I what I gained from punk. Over the past few years when I have been involved in campaigns and community activism I have often been pulled up short when I realise that a lot of people don’t have a ‘punk attitude’ – don’t take for granted that change is possible and achievable. That “Don’t be told what you want, don’t be told what you need” is not engraved in their hearts.
Martin C
February 4, 2009 at 2:32 amI think Steve Ignorant ‘sold out’ the time he tried to grope my older sister’s tits at the back of the Moonlight in 1980, and ended up getting bushwhacked by a bunch of Burnt Oak/West Hendon punks, skins and soul boys who’d come down with her.
Anyway, surely the best band on Crass Records (apart from Hit Parade) were Clockwork Criminals? “We’re You” is brilliant, totally out of tune and captures that era of rabies adverts / nuclear warnings / burnt and mutilated trainsurfers / disfigured firework throwers perfectly.
(EDIT – Charlie Harper once jumped over a tube escalator to chat her up. He’d have been a decent brother-in-law…at least he didn’t wear plastic sandals)
Jay Vee
February 4, 2009 at 2:01 pmSounds ominous, a lot of those kind of accusations are way exaggerated – I’m inclined to believe that an innocent flirt was jealously interpreted by your sisters friends as ‘Steve trying to grope your sisters breasts’ – and even then your sister may have been the one that flirted with him, a lot of skins will try anything to slur a vulnerable singer / popular band members reputation, especially the skins back in the early eighties that hated everything Crass stood for. I’ve met Steve on a few occasions, and he’s never been chatting to women, but on those occasions women always approached him for autographs, and that’s been it.
Not accusing your sister of 1980 at the Moonlight being vindictive, or on any other occasion, but just to reiterate, groups of blokes that more than likely already ‘fancied’ your sister were obviously gonna be jealous of any interaction that might have took place between her and Steve Ignorant, as what ever her age at the time and especially the blokes I bet were somewhat younger, immaturity plays a big part in the jealousy of human emotions at those teenage times that took place in 1980, and thus of course the slurs and bitterness tend to make people that didn’t like Crass believe it all the more…
Charlie Harper will be at Durham on the same day as Steve Ignorant, maybe we should get the 2 of them together for a ‘Pin Up Of Punk’ in 2009 campaign, and see what response they get from the women now!!!
If your sister is still around can we hear her side of the story please, in a genuine response from herself?