Why CRASS Disbanded by STEVE IGNORANT
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- From the double DVD - Rebellion - A Punk Movie. Available here: www.ebay.co.uk... #crass #steveignorant
Crass were an English art collective and punk rock band formed in Epping, Essex in 1977, who promoted anarchism as a political ideology, a way of life, and a resistance movement. Crass popularised the anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, advocating direct action, animal rights, feminism, anti-fascism, and environmentalism. The band used and advocated a DIY ethic approach to its albums, sound collages, leaflets, and films.
Crass spray-painted stencilled graffiti messages in the London Underground system and on advertising billboards, coordinated squats and organised political action. The band expressed its ideals by dressing in black, military-surplus-style clothing and using a stage backdrop amalgamating icons of perceived authority such as the Christian cross, the swastika, the Union Jack, and the ouroboros.
The band was critical of the punk subculture and youth culture in general; nevertheless, the anarchist ideas that they promoted have maintained a presence in punk. Due to their free experimentation and use of tape collages, graphics, spoken word releases, poetry, and improvisation, they have been associated with avant-punk and art punk.
The band was based around an anarchist commune in a 16th century cottage, Dial House, near Epping, Essex, and formed when commune founder Penny Rimbaud began jamming with Steve Ignorant (who was staying in the house at the time). Ignorant was inspired to form a band after seeing The Clash perform at Colston Hall in Bristol, whilst Rimbaud, a veteran of avant garde performance art groups such as EXIT and Ceres Confusion, was working on his book Reality Asylum. They produced "So What?" and "Do They Owe Us A Living?" as a drum-and-vocal duo. They briefly called themselves Stormtrooper before choosing Crass in reference to a line in the David Bowie song "Ziggy Stardust" ("The kids were just crass").
Other friends and household members joined (including Gee Vaucher, Pete Wright, N. A. Palmer and Steve Herman), and Crass played their first live gig at a squatted street festival in Huntley Street, North London. They planned to play five songs, but a neighbour "pulled the plug" after three. Guitarist Steve Herman left the band soon afterwards, and was replaced by Phil Clancey, aka Phil Free. Joy De Vivre and Eve Libertine also joined around this time. Other early Crass performances included a four-date tour of New York City, a festival gig in Covent Garden and regular appearances with the U.K. Subs at The White Lion, Putney and Action Space in central London. The latter performances were often poorly attended: "The audience consisted mostly of us when the Subs played and the Subs when we played".
Crass played two gigs at the Roxy Club in Covent Garden, London. According to Rimbaud, the band arrived drunk at the second show and were ejected from the stage; this inspired their song, "Banned from the Roxy", and Rimbaud's essay for Crass' self-published magazine International Anthem, "Crass at the Roxy". After the incident the band took themselves more seriously, avoiding alcohol and cannabis before shows and wearing black, military surplus-style clothing on and offstage.
Crass logo.
They introduced their stage backdrop, a logo designed by Rimbaud's friend Dave King. This gave the band a militaristic image, which led to accusations of fascism. Crass countered that their uniform appearance was intended to be a statement against the "cult of personality", so (in contrast to many rock bands) no member would be identified as the "leader".
Conceived and intended as cover artwork for a self-published pamphlet version of Rimbaud's Christ's Reality Asylum, the Crass logo was an amalgam of several "icons of authority" including the Christian cross, the swastika, the Union Jack and a two-headed Ouroboros (symbolising the idea that power will eventually destroy itself). Using such deliberately mixed messages was part of Crass' strategy of presenting themselves as a "barrage of contradictions", challenging audiences to (in Rimbaud's words) "make your own fucking minds up". This included using loud, aggressive music to promote a pacifist message, a reference to their Dadaist, performance-art backgrounds and situationist ideas. Meanwhile, Johnny Rotten stated that the band was "too political for my liking. They preach to themselves with a communist slant".
The band eschewed elaborate stage lighting during live sets, preferring to play under 40-watt household light bulbs; the technical difficulties of filming under such lighting conditions partly explains why there is little live footage of Crass. They pioneered multimedia presentation, using video technology (back-projected films and video collages by Mick Duf
#anarchy #punkrock #punk
1997 I discovered Crass, still very much love thier music! I was 17 then. Recently my oldest daughter started listening to them, and it makes me so happy!
What about the exploited?
I believe I too discovered them in 96/97 as I was 15/16 (born in 81). I'm still very much a fan and continue to listen to em fairly regularly.😎✌️❤️☮️
Amazing geezer, down to earth, no bullshit.
I've met quite a few from that era that told me crass changed their lives.
I'm from brum met a gezza
In Weston. From Leeds
Told me Big A little a.
Changed him forever.
That was 2019....we both was still tuned in ..
Fuck the shitstem
.
I was at that last gig in Wales and remember after the gig Eve was talking informally with a bunch of people just sitting about. I didn’t hear the full conversation but they were talking about the idea of Crass breaking up. So I’m sure they, or at least she, was already thinking about it.
I met up with crass and conflict way back when and we squatted the zig zag club... Great gigs, great band and genuine people... Obvs that version of anarchy was pure idealism... They all ended up owning property and relying on the money system like everyone else... But it was heart felt rebellion when we were kids... Steve seems like a decent guy as an adult
they are really little known in france, don't think they played here, buying the records was hard in the late 80s/90s. Internet changed everything, but i'm always a bit disappointed not to have seen them live (i discovered them in 87/88 when Carlton gave me a tape of STATIONS"
Saw Crass in Liverpool a few times in the early 80's
So lucky! I have so many of their eps and lps. Cheers from Yankee land!
Looking forward to hearing Steve in Bristol next Thursday 😀
They were the sound track of my teenage years.
John Smith same here john x
Likewise mate
Me too, lads! Hardcore was I.
They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
Crass are as relevant, if not moreso, today, as they were in the late 70s early 80s. People need to wake up and see what's happening all around them.
Agree.People are dumbed-down and seem resigned to perpetual Tory 'government '.
Songs are but Steve sold out & is cashing in on Crass nowadays with his Crass covers band playing festivals etc & the other day they played a festival in usa to 40,000 people seriously
@@Colin-ro6lh It's really disgusting and ruining the Crass legacy. All that work they did to bring music out so cheaply for everyone and all the other bands they helped and he just wants to cash in on it. Makes it look as though it was all hypocritical. Shameful and sad.
Grande Steve!
So many great songs
feeding the 5000 rewired my brain back in 80! i was 15
I love Jill Valentine so much, she’s my muse and Couldn’t live without her.
Crass are great musically but they totally sold out to political correctness and always were too politically active to be liked by all punks. Steve sold out to being a p.c. punk. He's a poser. Real punks dont care about anything but having fun. This nonsense about PUNK being a real activist and protest movement needs to fucking end. It's for fun times and a bit of acting, satire, spoof, and comic relief. Keep the political correctness out of it. Enough is enough. All it's done is seriously ruin our livelihoods as Anarchists by creating all these fucked up, depressing, causes.
Lol. Who told ya that. Yer yalkin shite man
Are you for real? Way to completely miss the point.