CRASS - AnarchoPunk in Perth

A few months after uprisings had taken place across Britain, in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol, the Lower City Hall in Perth (4 July 1981) played host to the anarchist punk group Crass.

Known for their attacks on power structures; bourgeois constructs; the mediocrity of modern living; war; and, the ruling class, Crass combined solid riffs with resonating lyrics. These lyrics often fell foul of the British state and the media; the band were hounded through the courts using the Obscene Publications Act. When the single Reality Asylum came out, police raided shops that stocked it; Scotland Yards' Vice Squad interviewed band members; and, the song was banned by tv and radio stations. In addition, many major record shops conspired to keep Crass records out of the public domain.

Certainly their albums were pretty hard hitting and Crass attempted to respond to political events as quickly as they could - How does it feel to be the mother of a 1000 dead and Sheep Farming in the Falklands were both critical engagements with the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and her Conservative Government's pursuit of the Falklands War. Symbolically the final performance by Crass was at a support concert for the striking South Wales miners (1984/85 Miners' Strike) at Aberdare in Wales.

The concert at Perth City Hall in 1981 was recorded directly at the mixing desk on the night and issued as an album on Pomona Records in 1983 - You'll Ruin it for Everyone - in a limited edition of 1000 copies It was re-released in 2001 with a new cover. The album title came from words shouted from the stage by band member, Steve Ignorant, to a group of National Front skinheads that had come along that night and were causing trouble. The play list is shown below:

1. Punk is Dead

2. Nagasaki Nightmare

3. Hello Hero

4. Anti Mother

5. Mother Love

6. Reality Whitewash

7. System

8. Big Man Big M.A.N.

9. Health Surface

10. Big a Little A

11. Big Hands

12. Tired

13. Rival Tribal Rebel Revel

14. Poison in a Pretty Pill

15. Beketex Bribe

16. Bomb

Formed in 1977, Crass grew out of a open house community in Essex, known as the Dial House. Its members collectively occupying political spaces that were anarchist; pacifist; libertarian; socialist-communist; punk; socially alienated; and, subversive. Key band members include:

Penny Rimbaud (John Ratter)

Gee Voucher (Ge-sus) - artwork/video/tapes

Steve Ignorant - vocals

N.A. Palmer

Phil Free - lead guitar

Pete Wright - bass guitar

Eve Libertine - vocals

Joy de Vivre - vocals

Mick Duffield - films

John Loder - engineer

Hari Nana - rhythm guitar

Initially employing the name Stormtrooper, the band settled on the name Crass, which is a line from the David Bowie song, Ziggy Stardust:

"Ziggy played for time

Jiving us that we were voodoo

But the kids were just crass."

The decision to wear dark military uniforms led the band to be criticised for the use of right wing imagery. In fact the decision was made "as a protest against the narcissistic peacockery of fashion punks." Crass saw themselves in left opposition to the likes of mainstream punk bands such as the Sex Pistols and Stranglers. Despite the clear anarchist orientation of the band, organising of a libertarian graffiti campaign in London, and involvement in direct action movements such as Stop the City, they too had their critics from the Left.

Early gigs at the White Lion, in Putney (West London) were poorly attended both for Crass and the UK Subs who played with them. Nevertheless, Crass continued to play and record; the band set up their own label Crass Records, to record both themselves and other punk groups - and turned down lucrative contracts with large record corporations. More than 100 artists and groups recorded on this label. At the core of the Crass project was a belief that punk was the music of the people, and that its development required the idea of Do it Yourself. Three compilation albums of the songs of young punk bands which, refused to compromise with the commercial record labels, were put out under the title Bullshit Detector Volumes 1,2 and 3. Many performers were invited to tour and/or play with the band, amongst them Honey Bane, Zounds, Flux of Pink Indians, Kukl, Annie Anxiety, Dirt, and the Poison Girls. Kukl featured a young Bjork as singer.

Crass began to put out albums that addressed issues of dominance, religion, feminism, pacifism, love, compassion, empathy, libertarianism, capitalism, and male power. To facilitate understanding of their ideas the band produced a newspaper called International Anthem. A list of their albums is shown below:

The Feeding of the 5000

Stations of the Cross

Penis Envy

Christ the Album

Yes Sir, I Will

Best Before (singles compilation)

Samples of Crass lyrics follow:

Do they owe us a living - 1977

"Don't take any notice/Of what the public think/They're so hyped up with T.V./They just don't know what to think/They'll use you as a target/For demands and for advice/When you don't want to hear it/They'll say your full of vice"

Smash the Mac - 1984

Roll up Roll up to the land of dreams/We weave and spin a web of fantasy/We touch on the pain of fear/Then whisk you back to the consumer world/Touch the surfaces, smooth the veneer/While three-quarters of the world starves/What do you care/The glitter continuing to glitter/The tinsel showers and Tinkerbell/Waves the magic wand/Sell Sell Buy Buy"

Nagasaki Nightmare - 1980

"They're always there high in the skies/nagasaki nightmare/Pretty as a picture in the general's eyes/They've done it once, they'' do it again/They'll shower us all in their deadly rain/Manmade power, Manmade pain/Deadly rain, Deadly rain/They'll do it again, shower us in rain/Deadly, Deadly, Deadly rain/Nagasaki nightmare"

By the time the Crass project ended in 1984, the band had changed their political position and moved from a social interpretation of society's ills to a deficit model. This is best summarised by this statement from the Best Before album:

"We have all been guilty of defining the enemy, and indeed there are those who would obstruct the course of liberty, yet ultimately the enemy is to be found within. There is no them and us, there is only you and me."