{"id":816,"date":"2008-06-02T17:43:56","date_gmt":"2008-06-02T16:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/?p=816"},"modified":"2011-09-23T21:58:52","modified_gmt":"2011-09-23T20:58:52","slug":"poison-girls-small-wonder-records-1979","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/poison-girls-small-wonder-records-1979\/","title":{"rendered":"Poison Girls &#8211; Small Wonder Records &#8211; 1979"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/pengy1966%20stuff\/IMG_3414.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"635\" height=\"640\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/pengy1966%20stuff\/IMG_3416.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"638\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediafire.com\/?pdsv1twq14s\" target=\"_blank\">Old Tarts Song \/ Crisis \/ Idealogically Unsound \/ Bremen Song<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediafire.com\/?zubcdhjxvtj\" target=\"_blank\">Political Love \/ Jump Mama Jump \/ Under The Doctor \/ Reality Attack<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/pengy1966%20stuff\/IMG_3416.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" \/>Eight track 12&#8243; 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.<\/p>\n<p>Formed\u00a0as a\u00a0band in Brighton, but soon moving\u00a0into\u00a0the Essex countryside alongside fellow thinkers,\u00a0movers and shakers in all things communal Crass, soon forming a formidable alliance with said band.<\/p>\n<p>Both bands released debut 12 EPs on Small Wonder Records, both of\u00a0which were recorded at Southern Studios under the engineering of John Loder. Both bands toured together as a package from 1978 until\u00a01981. By 1982 D.I.R.T. took the fancy of Crass and stepped in as main tour support in the U.K.<\/p>\n<p>It is no surprise that my personal favorite Crass\u00a0Records release is the split 7&#8243; single &#8216;Bloody Revolutions \/ Persons Unknown&#8217; featuring both these bands that also raised money for the short lived Wapping Autonamy Centre\u00a0. The track &#8216;Persons Unknown&#8217; by Poison Girls being my favorite out of the two tracks on the record.<\/p>\n<p>Absolutely love this band&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Text below taken with love from poisongirls.co.uk site as are the photos.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/KYPP1302.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"424\" height=\"640\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Poison Girls were right at the spittle-thick heart of Britain\u2019s \u2018anarcho-punk\u2019 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 &#8216;n&#8217; roll have been playing catch-up ever since.<\/p>\n<p>They were scarcely punk either. It\u2019s just that punk&#8217;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\u2019n\u2019roll mould that came to hand. A middle-aged, militant feminist, peacenik, anti fascist, anti capitalist punk!<\/p>\n<p>With guitarist Richard Famous and drummer Lance d\u2019Boyle, 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\u2019s voice a nicotine rasp that cackled or crooned her words of love, outrage or hurt.<\/p>\n<p>Their indifference to left\/right politics gave them no easy platforms. They found themselves ostracised by rock\u2019s bland, new consensus after 1985&#8217;s Live Aid. Yet their extraordinary integrity and intellectual energy sounds more current today than any from that period.<\/p>\n<p>Vi\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The band were truly unique and a genuine puzzle for puzzle.<\/p>\n<p>1975 &#8211; The original band members, Vi Subversa, Richard Famous, Lance d\u2019Boyle and Bella Donna, first wrote and performed music for \u2018The Body Show\u2019, an experimental, semi-improvised theatre production. The show played at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1975. Reviewed in The Scotsman as \u2018worse than two hours of toothache\u2019, 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.<\/p>\n<p>1976 &#8211; 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!<\/p>\n<p>1977 &#8211; 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 \u2018Vault\u2019, the cellars under the Brighton Resources Centre. Within weeks it became Brightons\u2019 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.<\/p>\n<p>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<\/p>\n<p>1978 &#8211; 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.<\/p>\n<p>1979 &#8211; 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.<\/p>\n<p>Played various tours around Britain, Holland.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Piano Lessons\u2019 released as a Small Wonder\/Xntrix co-release April 1st 1979<\/p>\n<p>April 27\/28th \u2018Hex\u2019 album recorded at Southern Studios, and released Friday 13th July<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>First serious attention from the music press, Sounds article by Phil Sutcliffe, NME by Graham Locke November 1979.<\/p>\n<p>1980 -\u2018Persons Unknown\u2019 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)<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Chappaquiddick Bridge\u2019 album recording at Southern Studios, May 17th, 18th and 24th, 25th . Released late October<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Promenade Immortelle \/ Dirty Work\u2019 single recording at Southern, September 13th and 14th<\/p>\n<p>Burleigh House eventually demolished December 1980 and the band relocates to Leytonstone in East London.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/KYPP1301.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"639\" height=\"392\" \/><\/p>\n<p>1981 &#8211; First tour in what was West Germany, and through the corridor to Berlin (still a landlocked western enclave behind the \u2018iron curtain\u2019).<\/p>\n<p>Getting increasingly frustrated playing to only male punk crowds.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u2018Total Exposure\u2019. Recorded at Lasswade High School, by Cargo Studios, on 5th July and released in October 1981<\/p>\n<p>Nil takes over the bass, and the band tour England, Wales and gigs in Dublin and Belfast as part of the \u2018Total Exposure Tour\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Old Tarts Song \/ Crisis \/ Idealogically Unsound \/ Bremen Song Political Love \/ Jump Mama Jump \/ Under The Doctor \/ Reality Attack Eight track 12&#8243; 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\u00a0as a\u00a0band [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-downloads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5730,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions\/5730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}