Old Tarts Song / Crisis / Idealogically Unsound / Bremen Song
Political Love / Jump Mama Jump / Under The Doctor / Reality Attack
Eight track 12″ EP from the Small Wonder Records stable, re-released on Crass Records a couple of years later on, the record on this post is the original release.
Formed as a band in Brighton, but soon moving into the Essex countryside alongside fellow thinkers, movers and shakers in all things communal Crass, soon forming a formidable alliance with said band.
Both bands released debut 12 EPs on Small Wonder Records, both of which were recorded at Southern Studios under the engineering of John Loder. Both bands toured together as a package from 1978 until 1981. By 1982 D.I.R.T. took the fancy of Crass and stepped in as main tour support in the U.K.
It is no surprise that my personal favorite Crass Records release is the split 7″ single ‘Bloody Revolutions / Persons Unknown’ featuring both these bands that also raised money for the short lived Wapping Autonamy Centre . The track ‘Persons Unknown’ by Poison Girls being my favorite out of the two tracks on the record.
Absolutely love this band…
Text below taken with love from poisongirls.co.uk site as are the photos.
Poison Girls were right at the spittle-thick heart of Britain’s ‘anarcho-punk’ convulsions between 1979 and 1985. They never bothered the radio waves very much, even John Peel refusing to give them a session. But, looking back, Poison Girls were a band so far ahead of the game that the rest of rock ‘n’ roll have been playing catch-up ever since.
They were scarcely punk either. It’s just that punk’s temporary levelling of the landscape gave them space to break through. Their singer, Vi Subversa, was already a woman in her forties, a mother of two. She successfully broke every rock’n’roll mould that came to hand. A middle-aged, militant feminist, peacenik, anti fascist, anti capitalist punk!
With guitarist Richard Famous and drummer Lance d’Boyle, they expressed ideas and emotions utterly unknown to the spikey-tops and bootboys. Their sound developed in all directions and, if anything, their centre of artistic gravity was a London update of the Berlin cabaret, Vi Subversa’s voice a nicotine rasp that cackled or crooned her words of love, outrage or hurt.
Their indifference to left/right politics gave them no easy platforms. They found themselves ostracised by rock’s bland, new consensus after 1985’s Live Aid. Yet their extraordinary integrity and intellectual energy sounds more current today than any from that period.
Vi’s impassioned exploration of female aging is unmatched in mainstream rock and the connection between personal and political, that Poison Girls dissect with razor sharp incision, has never been bettered.
The political impact of the band resonates as strongly as ever. Their ideas are still challenging. Their lyrics are as relevant and confrontational as the day they were written. The music bristles with warmth, emotion and a raw electrical power.
The band were truly unique and a genuine puzzle for puzzle.
1975 – The original band members, Vi Subversa, Richard Famous, Lance d’Boyle and Bella Donna, first wrote and performed music for ‘The Body Show’, an experimental, semi-improvised theatre production. The show played at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1975. Reviewed in The Scotsman as ‘worse than two hours of toothache’, it garnered full houses and a particular reputation. Vi Subversa celebrated her 40th birthday by singing in public for the first time ever, and a legend was born.
1976 – Back in Brighton through 1976, the band played on, under various names and large, shifting personnel. After hearing the demos for what became the Buzzcocks Spiral Scratch, and seeing the Pistols, Clash and the Buzzcocks at the Screen on the Green, the music took a more energetic turn!
1977 – In early 1977 the band stabilised as Vi, Richard, Lance and Bella and, in need of a permanent rehearsal space, they were instrumental in opening up and running the legendary ‘Vault’, the cellars under the Brighton Resources Centre. Within weeks it became Brightons’ only punk venue and rehearsal space, in use seven nights a week. The band played their first gig as Poison Girls at the Vault, March 17th 1977.
August 1977 and the band move lock, stock and barrel to Burleigh House just outside Epping, a semi derelict licenced squat due to be demolished for the then proposed M25. The move was a conscious decision to work on Poison Girls full time, and late 1977 saw the first bass player change as Bella Donna left to travel to India. Scotty Boy Barker replaced her
1978 – First 4 track studio recordings in May 1978. Gigging regularly. Set up Xntrix Records. Made contact with Crass, who by chance lived 4 miles away, and through them, were introduced to Bernhardt Rebours. He took up bass duties the day before the recording of Piano Lessons/ Closed Shop on 11th October at Spaceward Studios in Cambridge.
1979 – January 1979 saw the start of the partnership between Poison Girls and Crass. Over the next 2 years they were to play 97 gigs together, and Poison Girls played a further 50 odd by themselves. All but a handful were benefit gigs. All were outside commercial music business venues. This activity jump started the anarcho-punk movement as we know it today.
Played various tours around Britain, Holland.
‘Piano Lessons’ released as a Small Wonder/Xntrix co-release April 1st 1979
April 27/28th ‘Hex’ album recorded at Southern Studios, and released Friday 13th July
The height of the British Movement/National Front activity at punk gigs. Poison Girls gigs regularly targeted, most notably the Conway Hall in Holborn, and the Theatre Royal in the east end, and on one occasion at their home, Burleigh house.
First serious attention from the music press, Sounds article by Phil Sutcliffe, NME by Graham Locke November 1979.
1980 -‘Persons Unknown’ single recorded 9th Feb 1980, released May 17th on Crass records and sold 20,000 in the first week, with HMV destroying copies (which only helped)
‘Chappaquiddick Bridge’ album recording at Southern Studios, May 17th, 18th and 24th, 25th . Released late October
‘Promenade Immortelle / Dirty Work’ single recording at Southern, September 13th and 14th
Burleigh House eventually demolished December 1980 and the band relocates to Leytonstone in East London.
1981 – First tour in what was West Germany, and through the corridor to Berlin (still a landlocked western enclave behind the ‘iron curtain’).
Getting increasingly frustrated playing to only male punk crowds.
Bernhardt Rebours decides to leave the band and his last gig, also the last gig the band were to play with Crass, was recorded and later released as the live album ‘Total Exposure’. Recorded at Lasswade High School, by Cargo Studios, on 5th July and released in October 1981
Nil takes over the bass, and the band tour England, Wales and gigs in Dublin and Belfast as part of the ‘Total Exposure Tour’.
Phil
June 2, 2008 at 7:20 pmWow! Forgot how amazing this is. Cant of heard it for at least 25 years.
Forgot what a wicked sense of humour it has and damm funky too!
Cheers Tony.
Wanna listen to the first Au Pairs album now!
Nic
June 2, 2008 at 7:45 pmYes – great record: interesting arrangements, angular guitars, fantastic lyrics…
This is probably my favourite release by the band because of the breadth and quality of the songs (although ‘Chappaquidick Bridge’ is probably a more “mature” record)…
Thinking of the Au Pairs, I played an improvising concert not so long back with their drummer (Pete Hammond) – as part of Damo Suzuki from Can’s backing group! Nice night…
🙂
Stewart
June 2, 2008 at 10:11 pmI love this too! One of my favourite albums ever! Can anyone tell me how I can tell exactly what music is on this site? Or exactly what is on this site full-stop, lol?!?! I know I’m old and befuddled, but is there an actual index of uploaded music or anything like that I’m missing? I know there’s a search function, but it’s not the same, is it??????
Penguin • Post Author •
June 2, 2008 at 11:20 pmEither scroll down and keep hitting older entries then scroll down again and repeat for nine months worth or go on download guide (top right below search).
This lists the major artists at the time of the posting (needs updating) and you can hit say CRASS and then all posts with Crass music or mentions of Crass will be listed.
Stewart
June 2, 2008 at 11:33 pmOoo, ta, OK, I’ll try that then! 🙂
Jah Pork Pie
June 2, 2008 at 11:52 pmBloody marvellous! I’d forgotten how good they were. Brilliant live too.
Mike
June 4, 2008 at 4:13 amPoison Girls was and will be always brilliant
Phil
June 4, 2008 at 11:33 amOoo, Ive got to listen to it again!
Stewart
July 11, 2008 at 11:08 amJust revisiting my depleted record collection and I found a tattered black flexi-disc with no writing on it at all, but it is a recording of the Poison Girls doing a song which I don’t know but appears to be called ‘I Reject The Sytem’ – brownie points to anyone who can tell me where the hell this is from or anything about it! Ta very much!
Nic
July 11, 2008 at 12:54 pmThis is an easy one, Stewey…
It’s the free flexi of ‘Statement’ which came with copies of the ‘Chappaquiddick Bridge’ album…
They also had a nice red flexi given away free with copies of the manchester fanzine / magazine In the City (featuring ‘Pretty Polly’ and a live recording of ‘Bully Boys’)…
Stewart
July 11, 2008 at 1:58 pmOoo, that was quick Nic! Thankyou! Yes, I’ve got the other flexi too cos I presume it was when I was in Manchester – mine was on clear vinyl though lol
Nick Hydra
June 8, 2009 at 6:41 pmI Love this- especially ‘Bremen Song’. I’ve always thought the original sleeve was much better than the Crass records re-issue, so nice to see it again.
At this stage in their career, I preferred them to Crass, they just seemed to have a bit more depth to them.
Nick Hydra
May 24, 2023 at 12:50 pm“Are you waiting while the bath fills up?/ Watching while they read the papers?/ Have the shops ran out of rubbish?/ Is it time to have a crisis?/ Spill the beans and take your clothes off/ Can you stand it if I touch you?/ Watching while they read the papers/ Water dripping on the carpet?/ Can I say no?, Will he hit me?/ Plaster falling off the ceiling/ Can you stand it if I touch you? Break the ice burn the house down”
As I have said elsewhere, I got this from Small Wonder on the same day I bought ‘Feeding’, and I always preferred it. Just absolutely brilliant from start to finish. Fucking great cover, too.
‘Bremen Song’ is, quite frankly, their masterpiece.
Design/Artwork: Bernhardt Rebours