…including the start of several new sub-albums.
Fanzine Gallery being one of them, that has just been started and will add on to from time to time.
Also Huntingdon Street photos courtesy of Jellyfish (Stewart)
Farleigh Road photos courtesy of Jellyfish (Stewart)
Nightingale Estate photos courtesy of Jellyfish (Stewart)
Daubeney Road photos courtesy of Jellyfish (Stewart)
Additions to Puppies And Their Friends section courtesy of Jellyfish (Stewart)
Johns Highbury homecoming 2008 photos courtesy of John (and some by Penguin).
Memories of Min photos courtesy of (the adorable) Min.
Huntingdon Street reunion – photos courtesy of Stewart (who is lovely).
Harlow and Bishops Stortford scene – Tony Mottram and Neil Puncher photos from Michael Mitchell collection.
Mutoid Britain gathering 06/12/08
Photographs of the artwork, structures and machines plus the KYPP affiliated folk that attended this particular night, from the collections of Aithche, daughter of Mick Lugworm, Vicky Ridley and Steve Corr.
Tods Wapping Autonomy Centre toilet shots
Absolutely classy series of photographs modelled by some of the regular punters in the toilets at the Wapping Autonomy Centre.
Does anyone know of the whereabouts of Christina (above) from Bologna?
If so please leave a message in the comments section for this post.
Some new photos from the collection of the adorable Vicky Ridley are now uploaded in the photo gallery right HERE
Vickys photos take in London squats, the west country, punks and travellers in Spain and Portugal…
Fod has now kindly supplied some photgraphs circa 1982 / 1983 that can be viewed HERE
Martin Flux collection HERE
Lugworms spring picnic 2010 HERE
The lovely Tinsel has sent some of her photos to KYPP which may be seen HERE
Loads more photos being added all the time, so please keep coming back for new editions to the gallery.
Chris
February 5, 2008 at 12:39 amNice One! Will scan more and get em off to you soon. Anyone else who did a zine back then should send Micky a scan of the cover n’all.
As far as I know there’s no real on-line resource covering ‘zines from this early ’80s period and in my view they were every bit as important as the bands. In fact, i’d say a zine such as Pigs for Slaughter was in it’s own way a lot MORE important than 99% of the ‘anarcho-punk’ bands as it lit the torch for the cross-pollenisation between the anarcho-punk scene and Class War etc, from which came an increase in militancy articulated in such things as the Stop the Citys and bands becoming involved with industrial struggles (Miners, Print Workers…) creating a blood-line to the anti G8 type protests of today.
In fact, you could almost say that out of all the thousands of fanzines that were ever published after Sniffing Glue there are three which most encapsulate the trinity of stages the ‘underground/alternative/DIY’ punk (as opposed to the more ‘commercial’ bands adequatly represented by the mainstream music press) scene went through:
Toxic Grafitti = Nihilism
Kill Your Pet Puppy = Positivism
Pigs For Slaugher = Anarchism
Just a thought. Or maybe i’ve just had a glass of wine too many? Opinions welcome. 🙂
Nic
February 5, 2008 at 1:06 pmGreat idea – I wholeheartedly agree with Chris’ assessment of the importance of fanzines (apart from his assessment of the importance of PFS over ‘anarcho punk’ bands)…
They are definitley still important though – there have been quite a few ‘anarcho’ fanzines going for a good few quid on ebay over the last month or 2…
I still have a few fanzines knocking around, so I’ll try and scan some in (maybe next week when I’m alone in a deserted college)…
Penguin – what’s your email for sending things to?
(Also penguion – I may try and get you some mp3’s of music for the site – how would I send them to you)
Chris
February 5, 2008 at 3:42 pm“apart from his assessment of the importance of PFS over ‘anarcho punk’ bands”
Without wanting to get into ‘what anarchism is’ (something i couldn’t care less about anyway) i think it is undeniable that PFS represented the first time ‘genuine’ anarchist politics (as opposed to crass’s existential philosophy combined with use of an @ symbol) entered the punk arena. Remember PFS came out about 2/3 years before the first CW and, apart from a few disparaging mentions in ‘Anarchy’ mag and ‘Xtra’, PFS was thee first zine I ever read that pulled the stone tablets of Crass’s ideology to pieces and also suggested that punk itself was just a fashion and safety valve to dissipate any REAL opposition to the state.
needless to say, to suggest it ever was would be a tad naive, but we were young and idealistic then hoho…
the Living legends, Sinyx and Apostles may have said similar things but PFS was a FANZINE, though to be fair I would also credit Conflict’s non-pacifist stance as perhaps being most influential of all in ‘turning the tide’ in consciousness within the anarcho-punk scene from the zen ‘there is no authority but yourself’ to the militant ‘Smash Authority’.
Incidentally, can anyone suggest the origins of the genre term ‘anarcho-punk’ ?
It really NEVER existed before 1984 or so (tho i recall folk using the term ‘peace punks’ to refer to folk into crass type bands) and not one single fanzine from the period during which Crass were actually in existence uses it.
As always, suggestions welcome…
Chris
February 5, 2008 at 4:12 pmActually, Nic, to your great credit I would also say that “Punk Is A Rotting Corpse” was certainly one of the most iconoclastic songs from that era. Would have been interesting to see the reaction it received had Crass put THAT song on ‘Bullshit 3’ instead of ‘Crucifixion’.
And perhaps rather telling that they didn’t?
gerard
February 5, 2008 at 5:16 pm“Incidentally, can anyone suggest the origins of the genre term ‘anarcho-punk’ ?
It really NEVER existed before 1984 or so (tho i recall folk using the term ‘peace punks’ to refer to folk into crass type bands) and not one single fanzine from the period during which Crass were actually in existence uses it.”
No idea where it came from but I personally didn’t hear ‘peace punks’ until much later on. We used to simply use the phrase ‘Crass bands’ to describe the bands in that scene.
sean/dirtbox/shocker
February 5, 2008 at 6:19 pmI first heard the phrase “anarcho-miserablist” when chris amebix called me that at a new north rd party in 83,other than that I go along with gerard.The first time I heard “peace punks” it was in the newspaper article about rosebery ave
Chris
February 5, 2008 at 6:29 pmyea, think the first time i heard mention of ‘peace punks’ was in reference to some protest at a nuclear base in some fanzine I got sent, which must have been around 84.
i remember it had an – unintentionally amusing – juxtaposition between illustrations of things the author evidently regarded as ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ on the back. the ‘good’ being flowers, trees, a windmill (?) and a drawing of some smelly looking punk with a dopey grin. The ‘bad’ being denoted by drawings of pills, banknotes, and a large breasted woman in a bikini etc.
Wish i’d kept hold of it, though I fear my ‘ideals’ may have been at slight variance those of the author 😉
Chris
February 5, 2008 at 6:32 pmsorry sean, think our posts must have over-lapped there!
“The first time I heard “peace punks” it was in the newspaper article about rosebery ave”
that’s interesting…almost suggests the reporter was vaguely sympathetic to you in attempting to seperate you from the traditional media portrayal of violent ‘chaos punks’ ?
alistairliv
February 5, 2008 at 7:58 pmAnarcho-punk? First use 1996?
In the editorial of KYPP 4, September 1981 “Windy Miller” says he uses
“punk” in its original sense of no borders, no tradition , no rules, no conformity, a word to describe those who break out of ‘normal existence’ and live their own life not people who break out of one set of rules just to set up their own equally reactionary rules around an ‘accepted’ form of rebellion…
and goes on to try and find another term like Rebel Anarchist faction – used in 1978 to differentiate between squatting types and ‘tourists’…
In his 1983 NME article Richard Cabut does not use ‘anarcho-punk’ -but talks of “a new, positive, punk ” and describes Mark of the Mob as an ‘anarcho-renegade’. Richard did also use the word ‘anarcho’:
Back at the tail-end of ’78 and beyond, punk spun into a tailspin of tuinol-dazed tiredness. A pause. Trends came and went: dead ends such as mod, new romanticism – up to and including funk craze – all took their toll on the vital energy. And those who stuck with the essence of their punk were faced with the development of Oi. Punk, under the guidance of certain robots, gathered itself around a banner of no brains, no style, no heart and no hope, Heads buried in the glue-bag of dejection and floundering away under a barrage if three-chord rubbish – this is, and was, no way to lead a life.
Some drifted with the anarcho scene which at the time (1980/81) was the only worthwhile concern going. But by 1983, when everything is said and done, that angle seems too flat and puritan to be of much inspirational value. Crass, although anti-sexist, were and still are extremely sexless: a stark, bleak Oliver Cromwell new model army, who have sense but no sensuality.
At the opposite end of the scale, inspired by the feeling of the Ants etc, come two groups who are the immediate forerunners to today’s flood. They are Bauhaus and, later, Theatre of Hate – both of whom capitalised on the idea of style and, what is more, a ‘dangerous’ and sensuous style that attracted more and more fans who were sick of the bleak and macho Oi and the shallow cult with no name.
It’s these fans, reacting against the devaluation of punk, and fired by the spirit of the above-mentioned mentors, who are acting now. They’ve created a colourful and thriving nation-wide scene – resplendent in their individuality but still linked by a progressive punk idiom, one that says go instead of stop, expand instead of contract, yes instead of no. A new, positive punk.
In ‘England’s Dreaming’ 1991, page 584 Jon Savage says Crass ‘sowed the ground for a return of serious anarchism ‘ but does not use ‘anarcho -punk’
In ‘Senseless Acts of Beauty : Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties’, 1996, George McKay uses the word ‘anarcho-punk’ on page 11. Since George writing from a cultural studies/ sociological POV , “anarcho-punk” probably a term popularised by sociologists to define a subcuture of punk.
First use most likely reduction from ‘anarchist punk’ by journalist or sub-editor in music press : retrospectively, e.g. to refer to Chumbawumba or Crass ‘best before 1984’ on cd….
Chris
February 5, 2008 at 8:41 pmActually, that reminds me. There was an article in the NME by Steven Wells on Anarcho punk ages ago, but I think it was in the late 80s/early ’90s. Seem to remember there being photos of Crass, D&V and some dork out of chumbawumba with something written over his chest. Will try to hunt it out, sure it’s tucked inside an old LP sleeve but fuck knows which one.
tim
February 5, 2008 at 10:11 pmThe following is an excerpt from a letter written to Sounds by Ian Bone in 1982 (sorry I haven’t got a more specific date)…
(talking about a CND demonstration at Hyde Park)
“When a large group of Anarcho-Punks, bored with the speakers, decided to go to County Hall where the GLC were organising a free concert with one of their fave bands, the Mob, they were quite rightly verbally harangued by a couple of other anarchists…”
Signed Ian Bone, directly accountable to the rest of the Living Legends.
Nic
February 5, 2008 at 10:22 pmI think we may have to disagree Chris…
I would suggest that the first time that ‘genuine’ anarchist politics entered the punk arena was a direct result of Crass and preceded the publication of the first issue of Pigs for Slaughter…
The connections forged at the time of the ‘Persons Unknown’ trial were made manifest in an interest in Black Flag and other anarchist papers, compounded by the way in which Crass’ connection to various organisations (through the benefit concerts) led to the network of ‘peace centres’ across the country which also carried ‘genuine’ anarchist political pamphlets…all of this pre-dated Pigs for Slaughter…
I also feel that Pigs for Slaughter generally had a narrow appeal beyond the hothouse of the London ‘scene’ (and its associated pockest elsewhere in the country)…don’t get me wrong – I loved it, but that doesn’t mean it had a larger influence than it actually did…
Thinking about the term ‘anarcho-punk’:
We used to refer to ‘A.P.F. Clones’ (as we did on the sleeve to ‘Bullshit Detector 3’) back in 1982…
I’ll have a look at some fanzines from then and see what comes up…
Ian Bone verbally haranguing? never…
😉
(Living Legends were brilliant – we need their early demos up here…)
Chris
February 5, 2008 at 11:20 pmNic, I think maybe you are misconstruing what I was saying re PFS. I was merely stating , to my knowledge it was the first time any current within the ‘crass-camp’ had attacked their ideology. A veritable sacred cow in those days. It did not have any great influence in itself, but once doors are knocked down others run through.
Also, I wouldn’t say – and I wouldn’t imagine Crasss would ever have said -that their ‘politics’ in any way reflected what was, then, regarded by those involved as ‘genuine anarchism’ – which then would have been involvement in Grunwick and other industrial strikes as well as in the (physical) campaign against the NF & BM (something Crass expressedly avoided committing to).
In fact, for Crass’s opinion of ‘traditional anarchists’ (in particular those they met through their involvement with the Persons Unknown campaign) you need only read the lyrics to ‘Bloody Revolutions’ while Black Flag, Anarchy and Xtra etc regarded Crass with open and frequently published hostility and derision.
Tim: Oh No, that means Ol’ Boner ‘ll take the credit for coining the phrase! That said, wouldn’t surprise me if he DID invent it.
alistairliv
February 6, 2008 at 9:30 amKYPP 1, 1979 criticised Crass in a piece by Nestor Makhno – which includes a call for “class war” – which was then responded to at lengthy by Penny in KYPP 2. KYPP 1 also has full text of statement by Crass about Conway Hall incident.
http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/bb227/killyourpetpuppy/KYPP%20issue%201/?action=view¤t=KYPP1ProCRASStination.jpg
betab
February 6, 2008 at 11:40 amHello
I’m a new face here tripped over the site while looking for stuff on FITD. Found the phrase anarcho punk used in Green Anarchist in/around ’84 referring to the Italian Scene – I’ve only got some photocopied pages at the moment currently looking for the originals. I seem to remember GA referred to it as Anarcho-punk quite a bit but that might be faulty wiring.
Tim
February 6, 2008 at 12:02 pmI also found a couple of reference to Conflict in Sounds from 1982. One called them Anarcho-Street Punks(!) and the other just Anarcho-Punks. Unfortunately I can’t date these more accurately than the year as I kept the clippings only.
Nic
February 6, 2008 at 12:04 pmAh, yes Chris – I did get the wrong end of the stick: my apologies…
PFS was certainly one of the first occasions when the ‘Crass scene’ was criticised from an ‘insider’ position (along with the KYPP article Al mentioned)…followed by the rumblings from the Midlands a year later (which were slightly disingenuous as none of the people involved actually had any interest in any form of anarchism to my knowledge, except – perhaps – myself: indeed, one of the magazines referred to the people behind fanzines like Scum and Enigma as ‘lunatics’)…
I always felt ‘Bloody Revolutions’ was more directed at the militant left-wing (ie the SWP) than anarchist groupings?
(which would be confirmed by the use of the ‘Marseillaise’ in the musical backing, and the references to Marx, Mao, ‘Year Zero’ (Pol Pot) and ‘Vive la Revolution!’: there are no references to anarchist figures or slogans)
The issue regarding Pacifism goes much deeper than many involved in the debate would like to consider (facilitated by the strain of anti-intellectualism that seeks to cut off and suppress debate and expression)…
I personally couldn’t say I could adhere to the position adopted by Crass, but I DO however fully understand it…
Carl
February 6, 2008 at 12:47 pmMight be wrong, probably am, but didnt the phrase “Anarcho Punk” get used in Vague in the early 80’s when Tom was backtracking over his view on The Mob…Could be Vague 14…Mines in a box in the attic somewhere so if anyone would care to look…
sean/dirtbox/shocker
February 6, 2008 at 12:52 pmyou havent got Tom V up there as well have you?Cant find him anywhere else……
Carl
February 6, 2008 at 12:55 pmI will go and get the ladder…I may be some time !
Penguin • Post Author •
February 6, 2008 at 1:03 pmThat Vague article that is mentioned is attached to The Mob Meanwhile Gardens set 06/08/83 somewhere on this site.
John Eden
February 6, 2008 at 1:30 pmChris – the NME article you mention is here:
http://uncarved.org/music/apunk/nme.html
Chris
February 6, 2008 at 2:48 pmYou’re absolutely right Nic, which I had never thought about before, but Crass DID tell me when I asked about the inspiration for ‘Bloody Revolutions’ that it was inspired by the sort of folk they met thorugh involvement with the Persons Unknown Defence campaign (who essentially were an aspiring Angry Bridage MkII) and also witnessing the ‘macho left wing street fighters who acted like thugs at the Conway hall gig’. Then again, Crass were under the impression that they were SWP, when the reality was rather different.
(see ‘Anti-fascist’ by Martin Lux for accurate, first person account)
Indeed, reading Penny’s bizarre statements in KYPP and TG it almost seems he regards Crass’s ‘crusade’ as more important than the fact the BM’s ‘leader guard’ street-fighting cadre was physically put out of action for a significant period.
Also remember that Crass’s political understanding wasn’t ever particularly ‘advanced’. Not that it’s any failing of theirs, they clearly had infinitely more worthwhile things to do than plough through boring books on the Hegelian influence on Max Stirner and other such irrelant twaddle.
As crass said themselves, they only first started using a @ banner, not out of any conscious affiliation with anarchism, but to seperate themselves from the political left and right. I’m sure things might have gone a bit easier for them if they had never done so, as it is Crass’s OWN philosophy (animal rights, feminism, squatting, self-sufficiency) that in fact has had a greater counter-cultural resonance and ideological longevity than the more traditional anarchist principles have ever had.
Chris
February 6, 2008 at 2:50 pmJohn Eden Says:
February 6th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Chris – the NME article you mention is here:
http://uncarved.org/music/apunk/nme.html
Cheers, John, that’s the one. PS. Liked the account of the lewisham memorial event on your blog.
Chris
February 7, 2008 at 7:29 pmwas just sent a link to this piece by Andy Martin which has a relevance to some of the postings above I thought i’d post up to stimulate some debate (Micky, you may wish to move this to a topic in itself?)
NB: For those who may not be familiar with the book, the author of ‘anti-fascist’ was the guy in charge of ‘security’ at the 1979 Conway hall gig.
————————————————————————————–
Finally, at a concert we performed at Chats Palace near Homerton Hospital on May 13th, Chris Low gave me a book – Antifascist (2006) by Martin Lux. The simple, direct and utterly unequivocal title of his book displays more eloquence than any amount of middle class white Marxist twaddle peddled by such sick jokes as the SWP (known now as the Social Workers Party) and its contents are a damn sight more relevant to the struggle today than all the contrived waffle stuffed inside the cover of any Crass record. If only this marvellous little tome had been published in 1983 when all those pathetic, wretched black clad youths sacrificed their scant revolutionary beliefs at the altar of a hippy band from Epping whose most trenchant statement was ‘fight war not wars’. That was it, that was the most angry they could possibly dare to be without risking their woeful pacifist philosophy of which I was merely very suspicious back then but which I now hold in utter contempt and derision today.
MESSAGE TO CRASS: WHEN THE PEOPLE YOU REGARDED AS LEFT WING THUGS CAME AND TROUNCED THE BRITISH MOVEMENT FASCISTS AT YOUR GIG AT CONWAY HALL, MANY ORDINARY INNOCENT PEOPLE, MOST OF WHOM WERE FANS OF YOURS, WERE RESCUED FROM BEING BATTERED, BRUISED AND BULLIED BY PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW THE SAME CREED BY GRANFATHER FOUGHT AGAINST IN 1945. REMIND US AGAIN, JUST WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO STOP IT? WHAT WAS YOUR RESPONSE? TO CRITICISE THE PEOPLE WHO CAME TO THE VENUE AND STOPPED PEOPLE LIKE ME BEING BRUTALLY BEATEN BY NEO-NAZI SCUM.
Understand this, all you trendy types wallowing in nostalgia for the 1980s and the anarcho-punk pantomime. I know from personal experience how it feels to be on the receiving end of neo-nazi violence – when my home was gutted by fire from petrol bombs lobbed through the front window by neo-nazi cowards in 1984 – when 4 members of a wretched little motorcycle gang barged into Daves’ flat, shoved on a cassette of Wehrmacht marching songs and attacked me with a pick-axe handle in 1985. How do you expect me to react when a bunch of white middle class hippies tell me, from the safety of their Epping commune, that ‘left wing, right wing, it’s all the effing same’? Bollocks is it – wake up! How many times have I been beaten up, assaulted and had my home attacked by communists? None. How many times have our non-white band members been threatened with violence and called Chinks and Gooks by Marxist audience members? None. Welcome to the real world, chaps. Yes, the SWP are a sad joke. Yes, Marxists have the blood of Jews and homosexuals on their hands. Yes, we are aware of Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, Cambodia 1975 and Tian An Men Square 1989. Meanwhile, on the council estates and housing schemes, gangs of vicious drugged up teenagers try to make life a misery for local residents. Do the police stop them? No. Do we stop them? Yes. How? We mobilised with the local tenants, battered seven bells out of their leaders and threatened the others with hospitalisation should any further antisocial behaviour occur. Did it work? Yes.
Why is it now virtually impossible any longer for the BNP to assault innocent Pakistani people in Bradford? Because a couple of years ago they tried it and large groups of Pakistanis mobilised their forces against these neo-nazi rat-bags and hospitalised the bastards, that’s why. That’s why it’s now safe for Asians to walk the streets of Bradford and other northern towns. These Pakistanis didn’t say ‘fight war not wars’. They didn’t quote from Ghandi. They didn’t go and see a poxy punk band. They fought back – hard. That’s the only language neo-nazi cowards understand and respect. ANTIFASCIST by MARTIN LUX published by Phoenix Press, PO Box 824, London N19DL. It’s only £5.95 – so buy it and clear that old fashioned anarcho-punk crap from your heads.
Tony Puppy
February 8, 2008 at 12:09 amAndy Martin again re-writing history.
“when all those pathetic, wretched black clad youths sacrificed their scant revolutionary beliefs at the altar of a hippy band from Epping whose most trenchant statement was ‘fight war not wars’. That was it, that was the most angry they could possibly dare to be without risking their woeful pacifist philosophy of which I was merely very suspicious back then but which I now hold in utter contempt and derision today.”
Sorry, pardon, what?
It goes back again to the discussion (!) I had with Andy in his bedroom in his squat somewhere in North London, post a Hagar The Womb rehearsal somewhere in the building (possibly in this very bedroom).
We discussed the future of ‘the movement’ (not “anarcho-punk” the phrase didn’t exist) and Andy was going on about producing fanzines, badges and posters – I was talking about providing homes and food and income.
Reading his writing here it seems Andy still has trouble with reality.
As for Martin Lux. About six years ago I produced a summer season of acoustic events at the Hope and Anchor – one event a month. At each event we had an invited writer who read from their latest work and took questions from the audience. All went well, Rob Newman was a spectacular hit, until Martin Lux came to speak. and he spoke and he spoke and he spoke – reading from a book never to be published, and we in the audience quickly understood why. When he wouldn’t stop after about ten minutes of droning, carrying on despite the booing, I had to try and get him off the stage. When I tried to get near him his ‘manager’ assaulted me, and quite a heated altercation ensued.
Eventually I got the soundman to kill his mike. to great applause. There was a full bill of entertainment that evening and he was denying other people their right to perform and destroying the fun of the evening for nothing but his ego.
So Martin Lux as hero, I don’t think so.
Chris
February 8, 2008 at 12:27 amErrr…sure you haven’t got your ‘Martin Luxes’ mixed up? ‘Lux’ isn’t his real name and in fact he was at that Housmans social the other month; heavy set guy in his late 50s, who I imagine you would have known from the Anarchy centres as he was involved with them. I would have been staying in his flat 6/7 years ago and i’m sure i’d have known if he ever did anything at the Hope&Anchor, let alone if he’d ever had a manager. He’s only written the one book and the only time he has read from it was at the @ bookfair, though he also recently spoke at that lewisham Memorial event John Eden has written about in his blog. Think it may be a matter of mistaken identity.
You are right about Andy’s ‘re-writing of history’ though, something i’ve pulled him up about till i’m blue in the face. Think he just seems to see and recollect a lot of things in a very myopic way and tends to dwell on the past a bit too much. I only posted his article up as i thought it was an interesting ‘topic for discussion’ hoho 😉
Penguin • Post Author •
February 8, 2008 at 12:43 amMartin Lux (Martin Wright) has written the book Anti-Fascist, released in 2006 on Pheonix Press.
Chris, did he not basically do most of the writing for his brother’s book ‘Camden Parasites’ by Daniel Lux (Daniel Wright).
Daniel Lux died of an overdose of H just before the book was published by Unpopular Books in 1999, about two weeks before it hit the streets in fact.
Would it have been possible that Martin would have carried on the PR stuff to promote this book, Chris, by the heads of Unpopular Books.
It would fit into the time scale Tony is roughly on about. Also Tony if this was the guy then
1/ I can vouch for him, saw him the other day, nice bloke
2/ Maybe he wanted to get his recently deceased brothers work up there on stage (assuming it was Martin that was at the H & A that night), and y’know Martin was probably still a little in shock with the recent events. The book is very gritty and maybe with no or bored reaction, he may have stuck his heels in on behalf of his brother…
Daniel Lux – Camden Parasites has been reprinted on Pheonix Press now.
Chris
February 8, 2008 at 1:12 amYes, Micky, I was thinking that might have been a possibility but i am sure i would have heard if he HAD done a reading as that was over the time I was staying in Martin’s gaff (in fact, I had beem meant to move into his brother, Danny’s flat in Camden but he OD’d the evening I got the keys off him) so i’m sure I would have remembered.
That said, I could imagine if Mart HAD done a reading from it it wouldn’t have exactly been ‘upbeat’, but similarily i can’t imagine Mart giving anything other than an electrifying prformance even if he was reading stock reports from the Financial Times.
Chris
February 8, 2008 at 1:18 amWOAH!! BIZARRE!! Just got a call from Mart asking if I was going to that anti-scientologist do tomorrow. Asked him ’bout the Hope & Anchor and he assures me he’s never done a reading there, adding he hasn’t ever been there since the 1970s! So…a case of mistaken identity it is.
gerard
February 8, 2008 at 1:22 amNice to see the friendly tone of discussion here compared to the spitefulness regarding the same issue on the Crass site. Why do Crass inspire such spitefulness on their board?
Chris
February 8, 2008 at 2:11 amI always get the impression the real fruit-cakes on there are pretty young and maybe discovered crass through the hardcore scene. I really don’t understand where some of them are coming from with their ‘deep ecologist’ misanthropy. Check out the thread on there about ‘vegan Reich’ if you want to read some real snooker-loopiness. Some folks just ain’t got a clue…
alistairliv
February 8, 2008 at 7:43 amAndy Martin – “Crass proved me wrong…”
http://www.uncarved.org/music/apunk/autcent.html
I’m in Ongar. Essex; it’s 1979 and I’m to meet some band called Crass. Never heard of them.
I didn’t meet a punk band – I met a dozen black-clad idealists who were far too intelligent to convincingly pull off the punk band set. It doesn’t work if you can string together more than two coherent sentences – people see through it, apart from those who are as stupid as the average punk band…
I joined a punk band called the Apostles in 1981. I was a member of the (ahem) Revolutionary Communist Party and frankly believed in very little Marxism, not because I was cynical or stupid bit because I realized that most human beings are so brutish, selfish and greed-ridden that they need leaders and the firm hand of a benevolent controller to stop them from tearing each other’s throats out in an orgy of humanity. When I found out what Crass believed in, I became convinced that the majority of youth in Thatcherite Britain would just laugh with derision – pacifism and anarchist utopia is it? Yet from virtual obscurity in mid-1979 to national recognition a year later, they and their fans (yes, I do mean ‘fans’) proved me wrong.
Being neither a punk, an anarchist nor a pacifist, it is perhaps strange that I should have occasionally supported and even worked with Crass. However, as I hinted earlier, I was a communist who refused to toe the party line; this meant that I could work with people toward a commonly agreed goal.