A tape sent by the band many moons ago to punk guru, Chris Low, who lent it to me to upload here.
Decent pogo fare with a vocalist who on some tracks on the practice side reminded me of Jake Burns from Stiff Little Fingers with a sore throat.
The practice session was recorded and sounds quite tinny, but sounds the better for it, youthful untamed punk rock…myself and the infant boy were enjoying this material, the live side I did not listen to as I had things to do. Will listen to it later, I assume it is of a decent quality. The line up for this era was Sean on vocals, Buttler on bass, Grotsky on guitar, Richard on drums. A strangely named guy called Lutent Stigma is also mentioned on the cassette insert.
Ticket and poster courtesy of Trunt. The poster above was not the same Psycho Faction gig as uploaded, the gig uploaded was with Poison Girls and Rubella Ballet and is mentioned further below.
I personally knew nothing of this band at the time, except they got a mention in the booklet that was issued with the ‘Christ The Album’ box set by Crass. I know little more 25 years later.
Kill From The Heart blog does have some information on Psycho Faction written by Trunt and reprinted here:
Psycho Faction began life in Spring 1979 from the ashes of the Whitehaven punk band Anti Climax. With no instruments, save one cheap Woolies electric guitar, no musical training but lots of enthusiasm, they debuted in Summer 1979 at a riotously disorganised gig at Whitehaven Grammer School where their set comprised of very very bad versions of Crass’ “Do They Owe Us a Living?”, Buzzcocks’ “Boredom”, PIL’s “Public Image”, and a host of dreadful originals. Truly they had nowhere to go but upwards. A couple of personnel changes in late ’79 and early ’80 saw the band settle into the line-up that was to play most of their larger gigs: Sean McGhee on lead vocals, Kieran McGhee on guitar, Brendan McGhee on drums and Edmund Butler on bass (although the band always went by nicknames or their own invented punk names). With the addition of Vittorio Miotto on shared vocals for a short period – including their first appearance onstage with anarcho-punk legends Crass in October 1980 – this line-up through occasional shambolic practices started to slowly and painfully develop.
They were approached by Crass in early ’81 with an initial query on putting together a split single with fellow Cumbrian anarcho-punks Counter Attack for release on the fledgling Crass label. Although this would have been the first release on Crass Records (bar their own material and several months prior to the Zounds single), the idea never really got off the ground. This was a recurring problem for the band throughout their period together, as lack of money (they were all teenagers and for the most of the time unemployed) and lack of equipment meant the band never ventured into a studio to record properly. Several years later a kind offer by local Fanzine editor Martyn Cockbain to fund a split single by the band also fell through as the original bassist of the band had spent all the money they earned from a BBC TV appearance on drink!
Although suffering badly from lack of resources and disorganisation, Psycho Faction did manage to play around 35 gigs in their existence from 1979-1984. Not a lot at all by today’s standards, but back then almost all punk gigs were self-promoted/organised affairs. Along the way the band shared the stage with Crass, Poison Girls, Flux of Pink Indians, Conflict, Rubella Ballet and others on the anarcho-punk scene. They reached a sort of enigmatic fame via their thanks credit on the book that accompanied Crass’ Christ – The Album, being the only band of eight mentioned who remained unrecorded and unreleased (officially), and so it remains until this day. They were one of the bands asked to play the opening night of the long-lost legendary Gateshead punk venue The Station, and also appeared at Sunderland’s The Bunker. They were also unfortunate enough to be the target of organised right wing aggression that came to a head at a gig disrupted and stopped at Carlisle’s old City Hall alongside Rubella Ballet and the Poison Girls.
After years of grappling with their instruments (they initially didn’t know how to tune guitars, and once they had mastered that art it was another six months before bass and lead guitar were actually tuned together!), the band did manage to create some decent numbers – most notably their anti-nuclear weaponry anthem “Threat,” with its curious lead guitar solo inserted at the beginning, “Oppose War-Oppose Law,” “Right to Live,” “Money Kills,” “Windscale is Deathscale,” “Last Hours of Peace,” and “Ruled,” amongst others. With the addition of new guitarist Wayne Stephens (Nelly) for the last couple of gigs, the band were able to do justice to the songs. The posthumous Proud to be Punk – Live Oct. 6th 1983 tape release gives an indication of this with a noticably more melodic edge to the songs.
After the TV show in early ’84, the disappearance of money and subsequent disappointment within the band saw original bassist Butty being asked to leave. The heart soon went out of the band, with original members having children with their partners and people moving away. Today there are often requests and rumours of Psycho Faction reforming but this is very very unlikely.
James
August 14, 2008 at 8:01 pmSean McGhee edits Rock ‘n’ Reel magazine these days and also compiled the Anarcho Punk series of CDs.
Nic
August 15, 2008 at 9:18 am“Lutent Stigma” – that’s a nifty moniker…
We used to write to Sean McGhee back then in the early 80’s, featuring Psycho Faction in our fanzines (Rat Napalm also put them on one of his compilation tapes) and listening to recordings of other Cumbrian Punk bands like Distortion, Third Party and Nomadic Dissident Sect…
The ‘Kind Girls’ magazine referred to on the poster was a Feminist magazine (iirc)…
Trunt
August 15, 2008 at 10:23 pmHey, Thanks for putting Psycho Faction on here, I hung around with them from 80 to 85, still go and see Sean every week, top guy and has a memory second to none on the punk scene, and yes he still edits his magazine Rock’n’Reel which has been going 20 years off and on. You seem to know your stuff Nic, the Cumbrian punk scene was bouncing, with the bands mentioned above, plus The Dead, Suicide Visionary, Scum, Activist, Peroxide, Anarchism, Slaughtered Corpses, Final Solution and the great A Touch Of Hysteria to name but a few. Kind Girls fanzine was part of the reason I started mine ‘Scrobe’ and it was, a strong feminist fanzine run by Tricia. I can’t forget another band from our area Counter Attack who had a classic song on the first Bullshit Detector ‘Don’t wanna fight for you’ If anyone has their demo, please get in touch as even the band don’t have a copy. Psycho faction and Counter Attack were going to have a split single on Crass records, one of the first from a band outside of Crass, but sadly never came about. I’ll tell Sean about this posting, he’ll be over the moon. If you want anything from these Cumbrian bands Tony/Penguin, please get in touch. Thanks a million Trunt.
Penguin • Post Author •
August 16, 2008 at 12:05 amI used to distribute Rock n Reel booklets from right at the beginning, when I did King Penguin Dist in the late 1980’s. Think I was on a thanks list bit on a couple of them at some point until I stopped that dist to work fulltime at Southern.
Did not know it was this guy! Been speaking and helping out John Esplen a little with some artwork for the Mob rerelease on Overground recently, think he mentioned this same guy…small world.
Nic
August 16, 2008 at 9:41 amTrunt – I still owe you some recordings for the tapes you sent me – and the Cumbrian TV interview with Psycho Faction (I’m hextopus on the Crass board): I WILL get on it, I promise!
Sean (McGhee) has done sterling work on the ‘Anti…’ compilations: a great piece of archivism which opens up the ideas to a new audience…
I too would love a recording by Counter Attack – I still hum their contribution to ‘Bullshit Detector – Volume 1’ to myself from time to time: it had a real driving energy…
I do remember that I used to write to Suicide Visionary – they objected to my views on Punk and I still have a fanzine where they wrote in an interview “We still believe in Punk unlike those wankers like Nik Napalm”: still cracks me up…
Trunt
August 18, 2008 at 3:39 pmHi Nic, No rush mate, I know you are a busy man, Pinky who sung for Suicide Visionary works as a printer at the same place as me, now and again he asks for punky c.d.s off me, but really he faded away like so many, he’s more interested in Rugby, they say he isn’t a bad player, and building house’s. They also did the fanzine Constructive Propaganda.
Nic
August 18, 2008 at 4:39 pmNice one, Trunt…
I think people who really engaged with Punk (and the political ideas which it pointed at) sometimes forget that for many people Punk was indeed a fashion: something exciting for a brief moment to be worn like a shirt and removed when the next excitement came along…
People went from Punk to Two Tone to Soul Boy to Goth to Psychobilly to Hippy to Metaller to Casual to Raver on the lookout for the next kick…
It wasn’t necessarily something that created a radical shift in their perceptions…
gerard
August 18, 2008 at 11:10 pmHi Nic
Punk was indeed a fashion – the best fashion at the time, though it quite quickly became the worst (see Sean’s t-shirt above :-)} The clothes were often (always!) better than the music, and a bigger part of the lifestyle inasmuch as it was lived 24/7. It was the clothes that started it remember 😉
I can’t say that I took the trip you describe, but surely it’s a bit two-dimensional to suggest – if I understand you right – that people who engaged with punk didn’t go elsewhere afterwards?
Personally, when I go to Camden and see these clowns dressing like they’ve just stepped out of a tardis, I feel nothing in common with them whatsoever. Punk was an attitude and for those who survived it, surely remains so – even those who you describe as ‘on the lookout for the next kick’.
And, as Barry Norman might have it, why not?
Nic
August 19, 2008 at 11:35 amThe qualifying phrase in my post is “for many people”, Gerard: some people did indeed ‘go elsewhere’ after Punk, but for many (the majority, perhaps) it was an ‘off the peg’ excitement which could be adopted and then discarded in favour of the next excitement…rather like the workings of fashion…
However, the thrust of my post was to acknowledge the fact that many people who really embraced the more political legacy of Punk sometimes have rather blinkered views on the motives of and driving forces behind others, and perhaps criticise or look down upon them unduly…
I agree that Punk was primarily driven by street fashion (as is the case with the vast majority of British youth subcultures), but it did develop into something a little more than that in some areas (which is certainly more interesting from my own point of view)…Here’s where we diverge, so I’ll shut up…
😉
Just a thought: beneath that ‘Tardis clown’ look might be an interesting and vibrant person…you may have more in common than you think…
😉
Chris
August 19, 2008 at 11:53 amTrunt – i’m pretty sure I still have some old cassette featuring several of those Cumbrian bands you mentioned packed away somewhere. Think it was called ‘Contamination Compilation’ and it may even have been Sean (or yourself!) who sent me it, back in the day.
Will try to squeeze it out when i’m next back in Scotland.
Trunt
August 20, 2008 at 3:27 pmI have both the Contaminated Compilations put onto cdr, also the handouts that came with them. It was probably Sean who sent you them, but copied by me, as I was the only one with a double cassette player, still have the beast in the garage, must have copied 1000s of tapes on it. Another compilation done by me was ‘Return From the grave’ again featuring mostly Cumbrian bands. sean say’s he can remember you staying at his house/caravan, for a young un Chris you sure got around.
Stewart
August 20, 2008 at 9:48 pmHi Nic and Gerard. Interesting little discussion there, so just thought I’d stick in my two-pennorth. Quote from Gerard: “Punk was indeed a fashion – the best fashion at the time, though it quite quickly became the worst, see Sean’s t-shirt above 🙂 The clothes were often (always!) better than the music, and a bigger part of the lifestyle inasmuch as it was lived 24/7. It was the clothes that started it remember.”
I would say, completely from my own perspective and mine only, that punk was never a ‘fashion’ for me: it was, quite simply, my life. At no point – never – did it enter my head I dressed the way I did to be ‘fashionable’. I personally only had contempt for the so-called ‘punks’ who spent 20 quid or whatever the fuck it was then down the Kings Road on a pair of tartan bondage trousers, and I had no knowledge or understanding of ‘fashion’ as a concept at all. How many punks, living on the dole and in squats, scavenging for food from supermarket rubbish bins and market gutters, could afford to blow a week’s or more worth of dosh on clothes???? None that I knew. Everyone I knew generally speaking got their clothes from jumble sales (remember them?!?! I still have bruises from the old dears elbowing me out the way in case I snatched the last crocheted teapot cover from their grasping hands… 🙂 And one of the things I loved about punk was the creativity and energy people put into different aspects of the scene, from fanzines to clothes to decorating their homes to dying their pets pink to political graffiti … When the punk ‘identity’ became stultifying and homogenous and exclusive of others who didn’t look ‘punk’ is when, for me, it was all obviously over… I hated walking down the street and seeing people all dressed the same in a bid to be ‘punk’. In my opinion ‘punk’ was always an attitude, never a fashion, and it welcomed people however the fuck they dressed – if you look at some of the photos/video of Huntingdon Street, for example, there are ‘hippies,’ ‘punks’, ‘skinheads’ and ‘straights’ all together. What was important was the attitude and the values: far more important than what divided us was what united us… Like so much in life, of course (he said patronisingly), it isn’t quite that black-and-white though – the clothes you choose to wear, or not wear, at any given time and in any given context are a reflection of who you are at that time and in that contect and the image you are choosing to present to the world, whether consciously or subconsciously. And why you choose to wear what you wear is influenced by the media, geopolitics, capitalism, consumerism etc etc etc…. I do realise how much else there is to say here, just don’t have the time or energy, lol! Just one last point though: for a long time I agreed with gerard that “Personally, when I go to Camden and see these clowns dressing like they’ve just stepped out of a tardis, I feel nothing in common with them whatsoever”; however, I now agree with Nic that “beneath that ‘Tardis clown’ look might be an interesting and vibrant person…you may have more in common than you think”. After all, as Poly Styrene so memorably sang:
I LIVE OFF YOU
AND YOU LIVE OFF ME
AND THE WHOLE WORLD
LIVES OFF OF EVERYBODY
SEE WE GOTTA BE EXPLOITED
SEE WE GOTTA BE EXPLOITED
BY SOMEBODY BY SOMEBODY
BY SOMEBODY
THE CAT EATS THE RAT
WHILE THE PIMP BEATS THE WHORE
AS SHE JUST SCREAMS OUT
FOR MORE AND MORE
SEE WE GOTTA BE EXPLOITED
SEE WE GOTTA BE EXPLOITED
BY SOMEBODY BY SOMEBODY
BY SOMEBODY
Or, erm, something… 🙂
gerard
August 20, 2008 at 10:22 pm“I would say, completely from my own perspective and mine only, that punk was never a ‘fashion’ for me: it was, quite simply, my life. At no point – never – did it enter my head I dressed the way I did to be ‘fashionable’. “
Me neither mate – I was using the word fashion to describe the way you dress as opposed to what was trendy
“How many punks, living on the dole and in squats, scavenging for food from supermarket rubbish bins and market gutters, could afford to blow a week’s or more worth of dosh on clothes????”
Well, what made them called ‘punks’ other than the way they dressed? As you said, lots of other types lived the lifestyle…
“ None that I knew. Everyone I knew generally speaking got their clothes from jumble sales (remember them?!?! I still have bruises from the old dears elbowing me out the way in case I snatched the last crocheted teapot cover from their grasping hands… 🙂 ”
Same here 🙂
“And one of the things I loved about punk was the creativity and energy people put into different aspects of the scene, from fanzines to clothes to decorating their homes to dying their pets pink to political graffiti …”
Same here 🙂
“When the punk ‘identity’ became stultifying and homogenous and exclusive of others who didn’t look ‘punk’ is when, for me, it was all obviously over… I hated walking down the street and seeing people all dressed the same in a bid to be ‘punk’. “
Thats what I was getting at before
“Just one last point though: for a long time I agreed with gerard that “Personally, when I go to Camden and see these clowns dressing like they’ve just stepped out of a tardis, I feel nothing in common with them whatsoever”; however, I now agree with Nic that “beneath that ‘Tardis clown’ look might be an interesting and vibrant person…you may have more in common than you think”.”
Yeah, food for thought there I suppose. I always remember the Japanese punks down Portobello who always seemed alright.
I probably have more in common than I think with most people of all persuasions – should I think this possibility is increased cos a macho bloke with facial tattoos, a daytime can of 9% beer and steel-capped boots?
Jah Pork Pie
August 26, 2008 at 3:11 pmI don’t think punk was anything to do with what I was wearing at the time. I started off wearing stuff I put together myself, and later put in my graft wearing the bondage trousers too. The overriding point of it for me, though, was that it was an attitude (which has stayed with me to this day, and for which I’m very thankful) about not trusting authority figures who claimed to know what was better for me than I did myself.
It was also about doing stuff myself if I wasn’t happy with the way that stuff was being offered to me by big businesses or governments.
And, most importantly, it was about not judging people because of the way they looked. It would be hypocritical of me to hope that people wouldn’t judge or categorise me for what I wore if I were doing the same to them because they choose to wear a particular pair of trousers. I don’t categorise people these days (and haven’t ever since I first began to understand what punk was about) until I’ve spoken to them – whether the subject of conversation is their trousers, or not.
John
August 27, 2008 at 5:39 pmOn the contrary I think punk was and still is 100% based on JahPork’s trousers. Sorry to put so much pressure on you, but you had to find out eventually.
Jah Pork Pie
August 27, 2008 at 7:20 pmI think there are probably some new antibiotics based on my trousers – they didn’t see a whole lot of Persil before they finally digested themselves – and possibly some new amphetamines.
But thanks for the compliment: I always did think that my trousers had pretty flys for a white guy.
I’ve not seen my trousers in print anywhere though, which surprises me somewhat. Quite a turn-up for the book, really.
gerard
August 28, 2008 at 12:57 amyou were wearing turn ups?
Carl
August 28, 2008 at 9:04 pmTurn ups…I can go worse than that. I remember pestering Mum like mad for some Oxford Bags sometime in the mid 70’s. She bought me a very fetching brown pair !!
It was only a small step from there to “Thinking for Yourself”, surely the only truism from punk !
Jay Vee
August 29, 2008 at 2:26 pmLet’s not forget that apart from people’s perception of Punk being a ‘Fashion’ or ‘Image’, the true way to identify with Punk was it’s music, and that of course will always be something we can have in common with eachother regardless of whoever has just stepped out of a Tardis, I know the attitude and statement of Punk in it’s various forms will be percieved on a spectrum depending on how ‘Punk’ you looked or look now, and fairplay to those that can keep their hair as spiked as the day they turned 16 or whatever while still being alive and active on todays Punk scene in their 40’s, doesn’t mean they don’t have something in common with someone that appreciates a Punk gig once in a while that is the same age, has family commitments, a beer belly, is balding and wears a pilot jacket lol where’s that Tardis…c’mon Billie Piper, get some bondage on, shave yerself a mohican, spike it up…we’re going back to 1982 to a Punk gig!
John No Last Name
August 29, 2008 at 7:32 pmWow I was staying out of this, but I couldn’t disagree more with Jay Vee on this. To me punk was not about the music or spiking my hair up. In it’s broader sense ‘Punk’ music included bands like the Pogues, the Television Personalities, Gogol Bordello, the Bad Brains, Wire, John Cooper Clarke, the Basement Five and a million other bands that took risks and stayed away from the really formulaic path taken by bands like the Abrasive wheels or the English Dogs. If the Sex Pistols started punk Public Image was the most punk thing Lydon could follow it with, innovative, daring, unconventional and challenging. In some ways the most punk thing any of us could have done after 1980 was to not listen to ‘punk’ music.
Jay Vee
August 29, 2008 at 7:48 pmOkay John No Last Name, with that mentality, The Dave Clarke Five may as well be percieved as the Punk band that The Beatles never were. In some ways, the most counter culture thing we could have done after was to not listen to John Lydon at all.
alistairliv
August 29, 2008 at 8:51 pmDC5! I’m feeling glad all over already…check out the jukebox here
http://www.daveclarkfive.com/daveclarkfive/index2.htm
John No Last Name
August 29, 2008 at 8:53 pmRock’n’roll changed music and everything post rock ‘n’roll was different both sonically and also in attitude and vibe. Psychedelia changed music and all post psychedelic music was altered due to it’s influence. Punk changed music and most post punk rock music was significantly different for a number of years. It’s influence is still barely hanging in there in most current forms of popular music. Metallica were clearly more punk influenced than metal bands like Judas Priest.
No arguements that John Lydon ceased to be relevant to me after the first few PIL records, but Metal Box was way more punk than anything a lot of ‘punk’ bands did.
Jay Vee
August 29, 2008 at 9:15 pm“Punk changed music and most post punk rock music was significantly different for a number of years. It’s influence is still barely hanging in there in most current forms of popular music. Metallica were clearly more punk influenced than metal bands like Judas Priest.”
We could go on forever and a day, but you’re avoiding what I originally said, that we shouldn’t forget that the Punk ‘Image’ or ‘Fashion’ stems from that pure Punk Rock sound that encouraged the kids to dress the way they did, and that ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll as we know it, Jim. Er…I mean John No Last Name.
John No Last Name
August 29, 2008 at 10:34 pmNot quite sure if your intent is to be contentious or if your tone just comes across that way on your posts, but I’ll take it as the latter. Either way I’m not avoiding anything.
I don’t know if you ever heard Joe Strummers pre-punk band the 101ers. Same voice, same guitar, similar sound and energy – but not punk. What made the Clash punk? The attitude and the fact that they said they were, oh and at least in the early days, the clothes and the image.
Whether anyone wants to admit it or not Punk started with the clothing sold at Malcolm McClaren and Vivienne Westwood’s shops and the Sex Pistols were formed out of the shop ‘Sex’ where Steve Jones worked and Lydon first auditioned for him and the others.
Now punk went on to mean a lot more to most of us than clothing, but it did start with the attitude and clothing and the point I was making was that all of the bands I mentioned were bands that musically were pretty far apart but could all be classified as punk or punk influenced. Few bands to me were more punk than Wire, but outside of a few songs they didn’t really sound all that ‘punk rock’. They pushed the limits of what they could do musically and took risks which is pretty damn punk rock in my book.
In a chicken and egg scenario the ‘pure punk rock sound’ actually did come after the clothing. I know that’s not the way any of us want to remember it, but that is what happened, sorry.
Jay Vee
August 29, 2008 at 11:43 pmIt’s totally open for the individual’s opinion, it could easily have been L.A. Deathrock, or the New York scene before 1976 that evolved into Punk Rock, as we know it, if anyone out there wants to dissect this further, also Brit punks that probably won’t want to remember it the way it happened, but bands like the Ramones and New York Dolls and possibly even Iggy Pop and the Stooges were making that so called ‘pure punk rock sound’ before the likes of the Pistols or The Damned or the 101’ers…but that’s not to say that British Punk bands had no influence on a global scale, and indeed shaped the American Punk scene to what it is today, especially with the likes of The Clash,
I personally found anything that came out of 1978 other than the Pistols or the Damned that was remotely associated with Punk to be developed into a Punk that people without a discerning ear could relate to as Punk, and that’s why I’m not contentious, but forgiving, and as much as I could be anal about music, I choose to address what is more widely understood by a broader public. I hope you find that in no way critical of your own view of the ‘chicken and egg’ equasion, and that you can see what I mean as I can see what you mean?
Trunt
August 31, 2008 at 11:09 amBloody hell, I’ve started something here, to be honest I’m keeping well away from all this, Who, What, When, Why is punk, does it all really matter, I think everyone has their own view on punk. Maybe it was Nic, that started all this Ha Ha, I suppose it got a few posts though. Have to go the Punk police are knocking on my door.
Jay Vee
August 31, 2008 at 11:28 amI can’t believe that John No Last Name could respond to my earlier comment so conclusively that he “couldn’t disagree more with Jay Vee”, and I’m glad that alistairliv sent a link to the DC5 jukebox cos it really doesn’t matter anymore, as long as I’m this side of Punk and not the Green Day side of Punk or whatever…face bovvered? LOL Have fun everyone, that’s what Punk was about originally I suppose until we started dissecting it…long live the DC5! cheers alistair :0)
sean
September 8, 2008 at 5:15 pmHey Gerard, Loved that Exploited t-shirt! Wondered when someone would spot it! Actually wore it in a vain attempt to annoy puritan anarcho punks and to perhaps stop the divisions between anarcho punk and ‘UK 82’ (leather, studded, big boots brigade). Did it succeed? I doubt it, although the gig the photo was taken at itself was memorable in that those sharing the lack of stage that night were Touch Of Hysteria, whose drummer Chris Acland went onto drum for Lush and Hardskin until he took his own life around 11 years back, and the night also featured a flute player called Troy Donockley depping with Workington punk band Final Solution. Troy went onto play with You Slosh, Iona, Maddy Prior, Sting and many others including Ade Edmondson’s new traditional folk punk band The Bad Shepherds.
Cheers
Sean
chris
September 11, 2008 at 1:02 pmNic: Actually, perhaps a bit of a digression, but after reading the Suicide Visionaries comment above and recalling your own comments re Psycho Faction (not to mention Crass and ‘anarcho’ bands in general!) in that last ‘zine you did, i’ve always been meaning to ask you; what exactly prompted such a ‘volte face’ in your relation to the punk scene (and in particular the ‘crust’ sub-cult) from what was such a critical and scathing position during the first incarnation of ND?
Personally, i’d regard the whole anarcho punk scene as simply a sub-genre of punk albeit one with a vague ‘ethos’ (and some fantastic music) but , like all music based subcultures ultimately no more than that; and as riddled with all the elitism and fashion-obsession found in every other cult. The more ‘extreme’ the sub-cult, the more stringent the codes.
From some comments here and on the Crass board you seem perhaps less cynical? I’m just genuinely curious, ol’ pal?
Nic
September 11, 2008 at 1:38 pmMy own ‘scathing position’ probably developed – in part – from the fact that I was somewhat quick to judge at the time – probably because I wanted to reach ‘absolute’ positions (without realising that they are almost impossible to attain) in order to bolster my own insecurities…
I’ve tried to temper this as I’ve grown older in order to recognise the positive elements alongside the negative…
Don’t get me wrong, mind: I’m still cynical enough to not relish the prospect of standing in some pub with a bunch of soap-dodgers dressed in a uniform watching some pedestrian, neanderthal Punk bands…
Another aspect is that I genuinely wanted the ‘Anarcho Punk’ scene to mean a little bit more than it probably actually did in reality – to be a little more than clothing and music…It took me some time to realise that perhaps that was all it was ever meant to be (and that anything more is just a happy side effect)…
Having said that, part of me always liked the threads – I just didn’t like the idea that you HAD to wear them…Once I didn’t feel that pressure (when I was in my mid-teens), I wore Punk clothes as often as any other styles which took my fancy…I’ve always liked my threads… 😉
Lastly, I would view myself as being somewhat ‘unbalanced’ from my teens until about 10 years ago, so that is probably part of it too…
That’s about it, Chris, old fruity…
🙂
chris
September 11, 2008 at 3:46 pmCheers for that, old bean, I kinda thought that would have been your reasons, and to a great extent I would share them.
That said, another reason i’m sure can’t have escaped you – as it was probably a subconscious motivating factor behind a lot of the kak i came out with when in The Apostles was that making ‘absolutist’ and iconoclastic statements about the ‘holy cows’ of the scene – punk; pacifism etc – was the easiest way to make a name for yourself within the anarcho punk milieu.
Most bizarre, and perhaps illustrative of the commendable tolerance of many involved is that we, as precocious and probably self-obsessed 13/14 year olds weren’t put over someone’s knee and given a good spanking! 🙂
PS: you going to go to Charlemagne Palestine on Oct 18? Should be a great show and a good excuse for a long overdue drink.
Nic
September 12, 2008 at 10:50 amYes, I think you may be right about the ‘subconscious motivating factor’ as well, Chris…
There’s still a small part of me that enjoys winding people up…
🙂
And you’re right about the spankings: they probably just thought “Bloody kids!”……
I don’t think I’ll make it down to the Palestine performance (as much as I would like to), Chris, as I will be down in the Smoke the day after to do a live performance at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank…unless I came down the day before and stayed overnight? Hmmm…I’ll have a think about that…