Crass

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This article is about the British punk band. For the definition of "crass", see crass.
Crass
Crass pete steve andy.png
Crass on stage in Cumbria, United Kingdom, 3 May 1984. Pictured (from left to right): Pete Wright, Steve Ignorant, N.A. Palmer.
Background information
Origin Epping, Essex, England, UK
Genres Anarcho-punk, punk rock, hardcore punk, art punk, free improvisation
Years active 1977–1984
Labels Small Wonder Records, Crass Records, Southern Records
Associated acts Last Amendment
Past members Steve Ignorant
Penny Rimbaud
Gee Vaucher
N. A. Palmer
Phil Free
Pete Wright
Eve Libertine
Joy De Vivre
Mick Duffield
John Loder
Steve Herman

Crass were an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977,[1][2] which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, a way of living, and a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism. The band both utilised and advocated a DIY punk ethic approach, producing sound collages, leaflets, albums, and films.

Crass practiced "direct action" by spray-painting stencilled graffiti messages around the London Underground system and on advertising billboards, coordinating squats, and organising political action. The band also expressed its ideals by dressing in black, military surplus-style clothing, and using a stage backdrop which amalgamated several "icons of authority" including the Christian Cross, the swastika, the Union Flag, and an Ouroboros.

The band were critical of punk subculture itself,[3] as well as wider youth culture in general. Crass promoted the type of anarchism that eventually became more common in the punk music scene (see anarcho-punk).[4] They are also considered involved with the art punk genre,[5] due to their use of tape collages, graphics, spoken word releases, poetry and improvisation.

Contents

History [edit]

1977: Origins [edit]

Crass singer Steve Ignorant, June 1981

The band was based around Dial House, an open house community near Epping, Essex, forming when Dial House founder Penny Rimbaud began jamming with regular visitor Steve Ignorant,[6] who was residing in the house at the time. Ignorant had been inspired to form a band after attending a performance by The Clash at the Colston Hall in Bristol [7] whilst Rimbaud had been working on his book 'Reality Asylum'. Between them, they produced the songs "So What?" and "Do They Owe Us A Living?" as a drums and vocals duo.[8] For a short period of time, they called themselves Stormtrooper,[9] before choosing the name Crass, a reference to the David Bowie song "Ziggy Stardust", specifically the line "The kids was just crass".[10]

Other friends and members of the household joined, including Gee Vaucher, Pete Wright, N. A. Palmer and Steve Herman, and soon Crass performed their first live gig at a squatted street festival at Huntley Street, North London. They had planned to play five songs but a neighbour "pulled the plug" after three.[11] Guitarist Steve Herman left the band soon afterwards and was replaced by Phil Free.[12] Joy De Vivre and Eve Libertine also joined the band around this time. Other early Crass gigs included a four date tour of New York City,[13] a gig at a festival in Covent Garden,[14] as well as regularly playing alongside the U.K. Subs at the White Lion pub in Putney and Action Space in Central London. These latter performances were often not well-attended: "The audience consisted mostly of us when the Subs played and the Subs when we played."[15]

Crass also played two gigs at the Roxy Club in Covent Garden, London.[14] According to Rimbaud, all the band members arrived drunk at the second gig and were ejected from the stage. This was the inspiration for their song "Banned from the Roxy"[16] and Rimbaud's essay for Crass' self-published magazine 'International Anthem', Crass at the Roxy.[17] Following the incident, the band decided to take themselves more seriously. As well as avoiding alcohol or cannabis before gigs, they also adopted a policy of wearing black, military surplus-style clothing at all times, whether on or off stage.[18]

They introduced their distinctive stage backdrop, a logo designed by Rimbaud's friend Dave King of Sleeping Dogs Lie.[19] This gave the band a militaristic image, which led some to accuse them of fascism.[20] Crass countered that their uniform appearance was intended to be a statement against the "cult of personality", so that, in contrast to the norm for many rock bands, no member would be identified as the 'leader'.[20]

The Crass logo

Originally conceived and intended as the cover artwork for a self-published pamphlet version of Rimbaud's Christ's Reality Asylum,[21] the Crass logo represented an amalgamation of several "icons of authority," including the Christian Cross, the swastika, and the Union Flag, combined with a two-headed Ouroboros to symbolise the idea that power will eventually destroy itself.[22][23] Using such deliberately mixed messages was part of Crass' strategy of presenting themselves as a "barrage of contradictions"[24] with the intention of challenging audiences to, in Rimbaud's words, "make your own fucking minds up".[25] This also included using loud, aggressive music to promote a pacifist message,[26] and was in part a reference to their own Dadaist and performance art backgrounds as well as Situationist ideas.[27]

The band eschewed any elaborate stage lighting during live sets, instead preferring to be illuminated by simple 40 watt household light bulbs (the technical difficulties of filming under such lighting conditions in part explains why there is so little live footage of Crass in existence)[28]. They also pioneered multimedia presentation techniques, fully utilising video technology and using back-projected films and video collages made by Mick Duffield and Gee Vaucher to enhance their performances.

1978–1979: The Feeding of the 5000 and Crass Records [edit]

Main article: Crass Records

Crass' first release was The Feeding of the 5000, an 18 track 12" 45 rpm EP on the Small Wonder label in 1978. Workers at the record pressing plant refused to handle it due to the allegedly blasphemous content of the song "Asylum"[29][30] so the record was released without the "Asylum" track. In its place were two minutes of silence, ironically titled "The Sound Of Free Speech". This incident prompted Crass to set up their own independent record label, Crass Records, in order to prevent Small Wonder from being placed in a compromising position in the future and to retain full editorial control over their material.[31]

A re-recorded and extended version of "Asylum", now renamed "Reality Asylum", was shortly afterwards released on Crass Records as a 7" single. Crass were investigated by the police regarding the lyrical content of the song. The band were interviewed at their Dial House home by Scotland Yard's vice squad, and were threatened with prosecution. Eventually the case was dropped.[15] "Reality Asylum" retailed at 45p at a time when most other singles cost around 90p,[32] and was the first example of Crass' "Pay No More Than" policy: putting out records as cheaply as possible. Unfortunately the band had failed to factor Value Added Tax into their costings, causing them to lose money on every copy sold.[33] A year later Crass Records also released new pressings of "The Feeding of the 5000", subtitled "The Second Sitting", which restored the original version of "Asylum".

1980: Stations of the Crass and Bloody Revolutions [edit]

Crass, 1981. N. A. Palmer (left) and Steve Ignorant (right)

In 1979 the band released their second album Stations of the Crass with the help of a loan from The Poison Girls,[34] a band with whom they regularly shared gigs. This was a double album, consisting of three sides of new material and a fourth side recorded live at the Pied Bull in Islington.

The next Crass single, 1980's "Bloody Revolutions", was a joint benefit release with The Poison Girls that raised £20,000 to fund the setting up of the Wapping Autonomy Centre.[19] The words were a critique from an anarchist/pacifist perspective of the traditional Marxist view of revolutionary struggle and were in part a response to violence that had marred a gig at the Conway Hall in London's Red Lion Square at which both bands had performed in September 1979.[35]

This gig was intended as a benefit to raise funds for the so-called "Persons Unknown", a group of anarchists who were facing a number of charges of conspiracy. During the evening several Socialist Workers Party supporters and other anti-fascists had attacked a number of British Movement neo-Nazis, escalating into serious violence.[36] Crass afterwards argued that the leftists had been largely to blame for the fighting, and that organizations such as Rock Against Racism were causing audiences to become polarised into left and right wing factions.[37] Others, including the anarchist organisation Class War, were critical of Crass' refusal to take sides politically, stating that "like Kropotkin, their politics are up shit creek".[38] Similarly many of the band's punk followers felt the band failed to understand the violence to which they were regularly subjected to from the extreme right.[39].

Crass singer Joy De Vivre, 1984

"Tribal Rival Rebel Revel", a flexi disc single given away with Toxic Grafity (sic) fanzine, was a further comment inspired by the events at Conway Hall, attacking the mindless violence and tribalistic aspects of contemporary youth cultures.[40]

This was followed up with the single "Nagasaki Nightmare/Big A Little A". The strongly anti-nuclear lyrics of the former song were backed up by the fold out sleeve artwork. It featured a lengthy article by Mike Holderness of 'Peace News' magazine that drew connections between the atomic power industry and the manufacture of nuclear weapons,[41] and a large poster map of various nuclear installations around the UK. The other side of the record, "Big A Little A", was an explicit statement of the band's anti-statist and individualist anarchist philosophy;

"Be exactly who you want to be, do what you want to do / I am he and she is she but you're the only you" [42]

1981: Penis Envy [edit]

Crass released their third album Penis Envy in 1981. This marked a departure from the 'hardcore punk' image that The Feeding of the 5000 and its follow up Stations of the Crass had given the group. It featured more complex musical arrangements and exclusively female vocals provided by Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre (singer Steve Ignorant was credited as "not on this recording"). The album addressed feminist issues and once again attacked the institutions of 'the system' such as marriage and sexual repression.

'Loving' advertizing Crass

The last track on Penis Envy, a parody of a 'MOR' love song entitled "Our Wedding", was also made available as a white flexi disc to the readers of 'Loving', a teenage girl's romance magazine. Crass had tricked the magazine into offering the flexi by posing as "Creative Recording And Sound Services" (note the initials). 'Loving' accepted the offer, telling their readers the free Crass flexi would make "your wedding day just that bit extra special".[43]

A minor tabloid controversy resulted once the hoax was revealed, with the News of the World going so far as to state that the title of the flexi's originating album was "too obscene to print".[44] 'Loving' was furious but there was nothing they could do. Crass hadn't broken any laws.[45]

The album was banned by retailers HMV[46] and in 1984 copies of the album were seized from the Eastern Bloc record shop by Greater Manchester Police under the direction of Chief Constable James Anderton.[47] The shop owners were charged with displaying "Obscene Articles For Publication For Gain".[48] The judge ruled against Crass in the ensuing court case, although this decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal, except for the lyrics to one song, "Bata Motel" which were upheld to be "sexually provocative and obscene".[49]

1982–1983: Christ – The Album and a change of strategy [edit]

Steve Ignorant, 1981

The band's fourth LP, 1982's double set Christ - The Album, took almost a year to record, produce and mix, during which time the Falklands War had broken out and ended. This caused Crass to fundamentally question their approach to making records. As a group whose primary purpose was political commentary, they felt they had been overtaken and made to appear redundant by real world events;

"The speed with which the Falklands War was played out and the devastation that Thatcher was creating both at home and abroad, forced us to respond far faster than we had ever needed to before. Christ – The Album had taken so long to produce that some of the songs in it, songs that warned of the imminence of riots and war, had become almost redundant. Toxteth, Bristol, Brixton and the Falklands were ablaze by the time that we released. We felt embarrassed by our slowness, humbled by our inadequacy".[46]

Subsequent releases, including the singles "How Does It Feel to Be the Mother of a Thousand Dead" and "Sheep Farming in the Falklands", and the album Yes Sir, I Will, saw the band strip their sound back to basics and were issued as "tactical responses" to political situations.[50] They also anonymously produced 20,000 copies of a flexi-disc featuring a live recording of "Sheep Farming...", copies of which were randomly inserted into the sleeves of other records by sympathetic workers at the Rough Trade records distribution warehouse, as a means of spreading their views to those who might not normally hear them.[51]

Direct Action and internal debates [edit]

Detail from front cover artwork from Stations of the Crass, illustrating an example of the stenciled graffiti used by the band

From their earliest days of spraying stencilled anti-war, anarchist, feminist and anti-consumerist graffiti messages around the London Underground system and on advertising billboards[52], the band had been involved in politically motivated direct action as well as musical activities. On 18 December 1982, Crass helped co-ordinate a 24 hour squat of the empty Zig Zag club in West London, to prove "that the underground punk scene could handle itself responsibly when it had to and that music really could be enjoyed free of the restraints imposed upon it by corporate industry"[53].

Approximately 500 people turned up and bands playing at the Zig Zag squat (in running order) were Faction, D and V, Omega Tribe, Lack of Knowledge, Sleeping Dogs, The Apostles, Amebix, Null & Void, Soldiers of Fortune, The Mob, Polemic Attack, Poison Girls, Conflict, Flux of Pink Indians, Crass and DIRT.[54]

In 1983 and 1984 Crass were part of the Stop the City actions instigated by London Greenpeace[55] that were arguably fore-runners of the anti-globalisation actions of the early 21st century.[56] Explicit support for such activities was given in the lyrics and sleeve notes of the band's final single release "You're Already Dead", which also saw them publicly express growing doubts regarding their longtime commitment to non-violence. It was also a reflection of internal disagreements within the group, as explained by Rimbaud; "Half the band supported the pacifist line and half supported direct and if necessary violent action. It was a confusing time for us, and I think a lot of our records show that, inadvertently"[57] This led to further introspection within the band, with some members feeling that they were beginning to become embittered as well as losing sight of their essentially positive stance.[58]

As a reflection of this debate, the next release using the Crass name was Acts of Love, classical music settings of 50 poems by Penny Rimbaud described as "songs to my other self" and intended to celebrate "'the profound sense of unity, peace and love that exists within that other self."[59]

Thatchergate [edit]
"Excerpt of the Thatchergate tape"
Reagan: "Those missiles we followed on screen... You must have too, and not let them know. What do you hope to gain?" Thatcher: "What I said before: Andrew. As cruise go in, I want incentives at all levels."
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Another hoax that originated from members of Crass became known as 'the Thatchergate tapes'.[60]

This was a cassette recording of what appeared to be an accidentally overheard telephone conversation, due to crossed lines. In reality the tape had been constructed by Crass, using edited recordings of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagans' voices. On the Thatchergate tape they discuss the sinking of the HMS Sheffield during the Falklands War, and appeared to allege that Europe would be used as a target for nuclear weapons in any conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union.[60]

Copies were leaked to the press, and the US State Department believed the tape to be propaganda produced by the Soviet KGB, a story reported by both the San Francisco Chronicle[61] and The Sunday Times.[60] Although put together totally anonymously, the British Observer newspaper was somehow able to link the tape with the band.[62]

1984: Dissolution [edit]

Crass singer Eve Libertine, May 1984

Crass had become a small thorn in the side of Margaret Thatcher's government following the Falklands War. Questions about Crass in Parliament and an attempted prosecution by Conservative Party MP for Timothy Eggar under the UK's Obscene Publications Act for their single "How Does It Feel..."[63] made the band question their purpose;

"We found ourselves in a strange and frightening arena. We had wanted to make our views public, had wanted to share them with like minded people, but now those views were being analysed by those dark shadows who inhabited the corridors of power (…) We had gained a form of political power, found a voice, were being treated with a slightly awed respect, but was that really what we wanted? Was that what we had set out to achieve all those years ago?".[46]

The band had also incurred heavy legal costs over the Penis Envy prosecution,[49] and this, combined with a sense of exhaustion and the pressures of living and operating under a collective identity, finally took its toll.[46] On 7 July 1984 the band played a gig at Aberdare in Wales, a benefit for striking miners. On the return journey guitarist N. A. Palmer announced that he intended to leave the group[64]. This catalysed the affirmation of Crass' consistently stated intention to stop in 1984 and so the band split up.

2002 onwards: The Crass Collective/Crass Agenda/Last Amendment [edit]

In November 2002 several former members of Crass collaborated under the name The Crass Collective to arrange Your Country Needs You, a concert of "voices in opposition to war". This was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank and included a performance of Britten's War Requiem as well as performers such as Goldblade, Fun-Da-Mental, Ian MacKaye and Pete Wright's post-Crass project Judas 2.[65] In October 2003, the Crass Collective changed their name to Crass Agenda,[66] with Rimbaud, Libertine and Vaucher working with Matt Black of Coldcut and jazz musicians including Julian Siegel and Kate Shortt. During 2004 Crass Agenda were at the forefront of the campaign to save the Vortex Jazz Club in Stoke Newington, North London,[67] where they regularly played. In June 2005 Crass Agenda was declared to be 'no more', subsequently changing the name of the project to the 'more pertinent' Last Amendment.[68] After a five year hiatus since 2007, Last Amendment recommenced performances at the Vortex in June 2012.[69] Rimbaud has also gigged and recorded with Japanther and The Charlatans.

A "new" Crass track (actually a remix of 1982's "Major General Despair", with new lyrics), "The Unelected President", is also available.[70]

2007: The Feeding of the 5000 (revisited) [edit]

Poster for the '5000 gig', November 2007

On 24 and 25 November 2007 Steve Ignorant performed Crass' entire Feeding of the 5000 album live at the Shepherds Bush Empire, United Kingdom, backed by a band of "selected guests".[71][72] Other members of Crass were not involved in these concerts. Rimbaud initially refused Ignorant the right to perform Crass songs Rimbaud had written, but later changed his mind. "I acknowledge and respect Steve's right to do this", he said, "but I do regard it as a betrayal of the Crass ethos"[73] Ignorant had a different view: "I don't have to justify what I do. (...) Plus, most of the lyrics are still relevant today. And remember that three-letter word, 'fun'?"[73]

2010: The Crassical Collection reissues [edit]

In 2010 it was announced that Crass were going to release The Crassical Collection,[74] consisting of remastered reissues of their back catalogue. Three former Crass members didn't agree with that and threatened with legal action to stop the project.[75][76] Despite their concerns the project went ahead and the remasters were eventually released. The first in the series was the re-mastered edition of The Feeding of the 5000, released in August 2010. Stations of the Crass was released in October 2010, with new editions of Penis Envy, Christ – The Album, Yes Sir, I Will and Ten Notes on a Summer's Day being issued during 2011 and 2012.[77] Critics praised the improved sound quality and new packaging of the re-mastered albums.[78][79][80][80]

2011: The Last Supper [edit]

In 2011 Steve Ignorant embarked on an extensive international tour entitled 'The Last Supper'. He performed Crass material, culminating with a final gig once again at the Shepherds Bush Empire on 19 November.[81] He stated that this was the last time he would sing the songs of Crass,[82] and on this occasion he had the blessing and support of Rimbaud. Indeed Rimbaud joined him on stage to perform a drums and vocals rendition of 'Do They Owe Us A Living', bringing the career of the band full circle after 34 years; "And then Penny came on (...) and we did it, 'Do they owe us a living' as we'd first done it all those years ago. As it started, so it finished".[81] Steve's band line up for this tour consisted of Gizz Butt, Carol Hodge, Pete Wilson and Spike T. Smith. He was also joined by original Crass vocalist Eve Libertine for a number of songs.[81]

The setlist also included a cover of "West One (Shine On Me)" by the Ruts during which Ignorant was joined on stage by the Norfolk based lifeboat crew with whom he now volunteers.[81]

Influences [edit]

Crass influenced the anarchist movement in the UK, US, and around the world. With the growth of anarcho-punk came new generations of people who became interested in anarchist ideas.[83] The band have also claimed credit for the revitalisation of the peace movement and the UK's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament during the late 1970s and early 1980s[84], although others argue that they overestimated their own influence, despite the radicalising effect that they may have had upon more militant campaigners.[85]

The philosophical and aesthetic influence of Crass on numerous punk bands from the 1980s were far reaching, even if few bands mimicked their later more free-form musical style (as on Yes Sir, I Will and their final recording, Ten Notes on a Summer's Day).[86]

Their painted and collage-art black-and-white record sleeves produced by Gee Vaucher themselves became a signature aesthetic model, and can be seen as an influence on later artists such as Banksy (Banksy and Vaucher have latterly collaborated[87]) and the subvertising movement.

Anti-folk artist Jeffrey Lewis's 2007 album 12 Crass Songs features acoustic covers of material originally written by Crass.[5]

In February 2011, the artist Toby Mott showed a small part of his personal collection of Crass ephemera at the Roth gallery, New York.[88][89] The exhibition featured artwork, albums, including original 12" LPs and EPs, 7" singles from Crass Records, and a complete set of Crass’ self published zine, 'Inter-National Anthem'.

The band has stated that their own musical antecedents and influences were seldom drawn from the rock music tradition, but rather from classical music (particularly Benjamin Britten, on whose work, Rimbaud states, some of Crass' riffs are directly based[90]), free jazz,[49] European Atonality[49] and avant-garde composers such as John Cage [91] and Stockhausen.[49] Members of the band have also cited influences ranging from Existentialism, Zen, to Situationism[92], the poetry of Baudelaire and the films of Anthony McCall[92] (McCall's piece Four Projected Movements was shown as part of Crass' performance at an early gig[93]).

Members [edit]

Discography [edit]

(All released on Crass Records unless otherwise stated.)

LPs [edit]

Singles [edit]

  • "Reality Asylum" / "Shaved Women" (CRASS1, 7", 1979) (UK Indie – No. 9)
  • "Bloody Revolutions" / "Persons Unknown" (421984/1, 7" single, joint released with the Poison Girls, 1980) (UK Indie – No. 1)
  • "Tribal Rival Rebel Revels" (421984/6F, one-sided 7" flexi disc single given away with Toxic Grafity (sic) fanzine, 1980)
  • "Nagasaki Nightmare" / "Big A Little A" (421984/5, 7" single, 1981) (UK Indie – No. 1)
  • "Our Wedding" (321984/1F, one-sided 7" flexi disc single by Creative Recording And Sound Services made available to readers of teenage magazine Loving)
  • "Merry Crassmas" (CT1, 7" single, 1981, Crass' stab at the Christmas novelty market) (UK Indie – No. 2)
  • "Sheep Farming In The Falklands" / "Gotcha" (121984/3, 7" single, 1982, originally released anonymously as a flexi-disc) (UK Indie – No. 1)
  • "How Does It Feel To Be The Mother Of 1000 Dead?" / "The Immortal Death" (221984/6, 7" single, 1983) (UK Indie – No. 1)
  • "Whodunnit?" (121984/4, 7" single, 1983, pressed in "shit coloured vinyl") (UK Indie – No. 2)
  • "You're Already Dead" / "Nagasaki is Yesterday's Dog-End" / "Don't get caught" (1984, 7" single, 1984)

Other [edit]

  • "Penny Rimbaud Reads From 'Christ's Reality Asylum'" (Cat No. 10C, C90 cassette, 1992)

Live recordings [edit]

Videos [edit]

  • Crass
Christ: The Movie (a series of short films by Mick Duffield that were shown at Crass performances, VHS, released 1990)
Semi-Detached (video collages by Gee Vaucher, 1978–84, VHS, 2001)
Crass: There Is No Authority But Yourself (documentary by Alexander Oey,2006) documenting the history of Crass and Dial House.
  • Crass Agenda
In the Beginning Was the WORD – Live DVD recorded at the Progress Bar, Tufnell Park, London, 18 November 2004

See also [edit]

Portal icon Punk rock portal
Portal icon Anarchism portal

Footnotes [edit]

  1. ^ Rimbaud 1999, p. 69.
  2. ^ "In August 1977 Dave King went (...) As Dave exits stage left, Steve Ignorant returns to Dial House and (...) Crass was born." Berger, George (2006). The Story of Crass. Omnibus Press. p. 76. 
  3. ^ Rimbaud, Penny (2004). Love Songs. Pomona Publishing. p. xxiv. ISBN 1-904590-03-9. "We believed that you could no more be a socialist [band] and signed to CBS (The Clash) than you could be an anarchist and signed to EMI" 
  4. ^ Anarchist Punk genre at Allmusic
  5. ^ a b Lynskey, Dorian (2007-09-28). "Jeffrey Lewis, 12 Crass Songs". The Guardian (London). 
  6. ^ Sleeve note on Bullshit Detector Volume 1 (Crass Records, cat no.421984/4); "Sometime in 1977 Rimbaud and Ignorant started messing around with a song called 'owe us a living'. They ran through it a few times and decided to form a band consisting of themselves. They called themselves Crass"
  7. ^ "At the end of the Clash gig there was all these people shouting and saying 'your shit!' and Joe Strummer stood there and said 'if you think you can do any better go ahead and start your own band.' And I was like what a great idea!" "Steve Ignorant Interview". Punk77. 
  8. ^ Rimbaud, P (2004). Love Songs. Pomona Publishing. p. xxi. ISBN 1-904590-03-9. 
  9. ^ Glasper 2007, p. 14.
  10. ^ Rimbaud 1999, p. 99.
  11. ^ Berger 2006, p. 83.
  12. ^ Berger 2006, p. 86.
  13. ^ Berger 2006, p. 93.
  14. ^ a b "Steve Ignorant interviewed". Punk 77. 2007. 
  15. ^ a b Rimbaud, P; "...In Which Crass Voluntarily Blow Their Own", sleeve note essay included with Best Before 1984 album
  16. ^ ""Banned from the Roxy" from Feeding the 5000". Small Wonder Records. 1978. 
  17. ^ Rimbaud, Penny (1977). ""Crass at the Roxy" from International Anthem 1". 
  18. ^ Berger 2006, p. 103.
  19. ^ a b Glasper 2007, p. 23.
  20. ^ a b Berger 2006, p. 104.
  21. ^ Glasper 2007, p. 13.
  22. ^ Rimbaud 1999, p. 90.
  23. ^ "Crass interview". New Crimes (3). Winter 1980. 
  24. ^ "Crass interview". The Leveller (25). April 1979. 
  25. ^ McKay 1996, p. 90.
  26. ^ McKay 1996, p. 89.
  27. ^ McKay 1996, p. 88.
  28. ^ Berger 2006, p. 108: "They were very difficult to film, because with Super-8 you needed far more light than was available at a Crass gig - all you'd get was shadows and light - that would be about it. So it was a bit pointless filming the gigs. I did try asking for maybe 60 watt bulbs instead of 40 but there was no deal" - Mick Duffield
  29. ^ George Berger. The Story of Crass. ISBN 9780857120120. 
  30. ^ Maria Raha (2004-12-31). Cinderella's Big Score: Women Of The Punk And Indie Underground. p. 96. ISBN 9781580051163. 
  31. ^ Ignorant, Steve (2010). The Rest is Propaganda. Southern Records. p. 167. 
  32. ^ Berger 2006, p. 137.
  33. ^ Berger 2006, p. 138.
  34. ^ Rimbaud, P; sleeve notes to 'The Crassical Collection; Stations of the Crass' Crass Records, 2010
  35. ^ Mike Diboll (1979). "Crass – Toxic Grafity Fanzine". Kill Your Pet Puppy. "After those experiences at there concerts Crass seemed to get a lot more edgy than they had been previously about sharing any sort of platform with members of the ‘hard’ left wing. The lyrics to the Crass 7″ single ‘Bloody Revolutions’ is based on that feeling from the band around this time" 
  36. ^ Lux, Martin (2006). Anti-Fascist. Phoenix Press. p. 89. ISBN 9780948984358. 
  37. ^ "Anarchy in UK: Crass interviewed: 1979". greengalloway. Blogspot. 23 October 2007. "But Crass blame this on Rock Against Racism which, they allege, has polarised youth. "If you're not in RAR then you're a Nazi. Now we're sandwiched between left-wing violence and right-wing violence" - Crass interviewed in "New Society", 1979" 
  38. ^ The Assault on Culture - Utopian Currents From Lettrisme to Class War. Home, Stewart. 1988. p. 96. ISBN 09851888 Check |isbn= value (help). "like Kropotkin, their politics are up shit creek" 
  39. ^ Berger 2006, p. 149.
  40. ^ Mike Diboll (1979). "Crass – Toxic Grafity Fanzine". Kill Your Pet Puppy. 
  41. ^ Mike Holderness, sleeve notes of "Nagasaki Nightmare/Big A Little A" single, Crass Records, 1980
  42. ^ Rimbaud, P; "Big A Little A", Crass Records 1980. Quoted in Love Songs p.57, Pomona Publishing ISBN 1-904590-03-9
  43. ^ "Southern Studios archive". web.archive.org. 
  44. ^ "News of the World". 7 June 1981. p. 13. 
  45. ^ Berger 2006.
  46. ^ a b c d Rimbaud, P; "...In Which Crass Voluntarily Blow Their Own", sleeve note essay included with Best Before 1984 album
  47. ^ Petley, Julian. "Smashed Hits: Overview". 
  48. ^ "Flux Of Pink Indians – F.C.T.U.L.P. – Alternative Mixes – 1984". Kill Your Pet Puppy. 
  49. ^ a b c d e Rimbaud, P; sleeve notes to 'The Crassical Collection; Ten Notes On A Summer's Day' Crass Records, 2012
  50. ^ Berger 2006, p. 220.
  51. ^ Berger 2006, p. 215.
  52. ^ McKay 1996, p. 87.
  53. ^ Glasper 2007, p. 25.
  54. ^ Glasper 2007, p. 26.
  55. ^ Berger 2006, p. 247.
  56. ^ Berger 2006, p. 248.
  57. ^ McKay 1996, p. 99.
  58. ^ Rimbaud 1999, p. 249.
  59. ^ Sleeve notes of Acts of Love, Crass Records, 1985.
  60. ^ a b c "Crass – Thatchergate Tape And News Broadcasts — January 1984". 
  61. ^ "San Francisco Chronicle". 30 January 1983. p. 10. 
  62. ^ Berger 2006, p. 238.
  63. ^ "Protest songs: Marching to the beat of dissent". The Independent. 5 April 2012. 
  64. ^ Berger 2006, p. 254.
  65. ^ "Freedom 6322 Nov 16th 2002 - Crass fail to show the way". A-Infos. 
  66. ^ "The poetry of jazz and the jazz of poetry…". 
  67. ^ 'This is the spiritual home of jazz and we ain't leaving' http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/may/31/popandrock1 Penny (he's a bloke) has started a petition to keep the Vortex in Stoke Newington, and puts up a notice in the club saying: "This Is the Spiritual Home of Jazz and We Ain't Leaving." The resulting petition ends up going to the council with 3,000 signatures on it
  68. ^ "Southern Studios website archive 'LAST AMENDMENT events'". web.archive.org. 
  69. ^ Southern Studios web site, 'Penny Rimbaud gigs in Montreal and London' http://blog.southern.com/tag/last-amendment/
  70. ^ "Crass music". Peace not War.org. [dead link]
  71. ^ www.steveignorant.co.uk
  72. ^ "Crass frontman plans "The Feeding of the 5000" live performance". Punknews.org. 26 April 2007. 
  73. ^ a b Aitch, Iain (19 October 2007). "Why should we accept any less than a better way of doing things?". The Guardian (London). 
  74. ^ "The Feeding Of The Five Thousand on Crassical Collection". 
  75. ^ "The Story of the Crassical Collection". 
  76. ^ "Anarchy And Peace, Litigated". 
  77. ^ "Crass To Reissue Back Catalog". Ultimate Guitar. 
  78. ^ "The Crassical Collection". 
  79. ^ "Christ the Album, The Crassical Collection". 
  80. ^ a b "Stations Of The Crass (Remastered), The Crassical Collection". 
  81. ^ a b c d Steve Ignorant (25 November 2011). "Blog post - Sheperd's Bush". 
  82. ^ Steve Ignorant (25 November 2011). "Blog post - The Absolute last Supper". 
  83. ^ Savage, Jon (1991). England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock. p. 584. 
  84. ^ Rimbaud 1999, p. 109.
  85. ^ "In their own writing, Crass somewhat overstate the contribution that anarcho-punk made to resuscitating the moribund Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the early 1980s. The initiation of a new arms race, confirmed by plans to deploy first-strike Cruise and Pershing nuclear missiles across Europe, revived anti-nuclear movements across the continent, and would have arisen with or without the intercession of anarcho-punk. What Crass and anarcho-punk can quite legitimately claim is to have convinced a substantial number of radical youth to commit their energies to the most militant anti-militarist wings of the disarmament movement, which laid siege to nuclear installations across the country and which saw no conflict between its pacifist precepts and its willingness to commit acts of ‘criminal damage’ on the military property of the nuclear state" Rich Cross, 'The Hippies Now Wear Black', Kill Your Pet Puppy web site http://killyourpetpuppy.co.uk/news/hippies-now-wear-black-rich-cross/
  86. ^ Glasper 2007, p. 17.
  87. ^ "Santa's Ghetto 2004, Charing Cross Road, London, December 2004". 
  88. ^ "Curated Mag". January 2011. 
  89. ^ "CRASS: selections from The Mott Collection 18th February – 18th March 2011 |". Crassthesecondsitting.wordpress.com. 2011-01-27. Retrieved 2012-05-27. 
  90. ^ McKay 1996, p. 95.
  91. ^ "Crass interview". New Crimes (3). Winter 1980. 
  92. ^ a b Berger 2006, p. 33.
  93. ^ Berger 2006, p. 146.
  94. ^ Rimbaud, Penny (Friday 19 August 2005). "John Loder obituary". The Guardian (London). 

References [edit]

Further reading [edit]

External links [edit]

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