Crass

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Crass
General information
Genre (s) Anarcho-punk , art-punk
founding 1977
resolution 1984
Founding members
Steve Williams aka Steve Ignorant
Bronwyn Lloyd Jones aka Eve Libertine
Joy de Vivre
NA Palmer
Phil Clancy aka Phil Free
Pete Wright
Jeremy John Ratter aka Penny Rimbaud

Crass was an anarcho-punk band from England, active from 1977 to 1984 . Crass saw their engagement primarily as directly political - music and the subculture were therefore only a means to an end. They also voiced criticism of what they thought were commercial bands like the Sex Pistols , The Clash, and Patti Smith .

Working method

Crass live in Birmingham , 1981

The idea of ​​starting a band wasn't planned, it just happened. Everyone was free to play along at rehearsals, which often made it chaotic. Steve Ignorant and Penny Rimbaud had been writing and playing together since early 1976, and by the summer enough equipment had been begged, borrowed and stolen to form a band.

Crass consistently refused the music industry despite various offers . While the first records were still released on small labels , the band had enough money after the first successes to produce the LPs and singles themselves.

The band tried both at their concerts and in their releases to do more than "just" release music. Films and videos were integrated into the program at concerts. Crass played in village halls, huts, communication centers and many other unusual places that were always new. Hundreds of people came to the events, which included music, literature and films as well as food and drink. The records were produced with fold-out poster covers, in which Crass had space to formulate their ideas. Crass promoted a graffiti war in central London. Back then, slogans often sprayed such as Fight war not wars or Stuff your sexist shit were based on them.

Relations with the mass media were difficult. The anarchism that the band propagated attracted a lot of criticism. After Crass grew too big as a cultural phenomenon to be ignored, the British media received almost nothing but negative reports. The band also had several problems with both the regular police and Scotland Yard . Although they took part in a peel session on the radio, they ended up on the station's blacklist a little later and no longer appeared.

At the Stonehenge Festival , Crass were beaten up by bikers. There were gigs that were stormed by the National Front , but there was also some trouble with the Red Brigade in London.

Band history

Crass live in Bristol September 1981

In the winter of 1977/1978 there were regular concerts at the White Lion in Putney , reinforced by the UK Subs . They released their first album The Feeding of the 5000 in the summer of 1978 on Small Wonder Records . The song Asylum was not included on it because the responsible press shop refused to press it on the album. It was then replaced by the two-minute silence track The Sound of Free Speech and instead appeared on the single Reality Asylum / Shaved Women , later also on the album's re-release.

The next album could not be released on Small Wonder Records due to the attention of the police . Crass borrowed money and self-published. The record sold well enough to pay off the debt and with the rest to form the record label Crass Records . Over time, over 100 bands have released on Crass Records, all with similar political views as the band itself.

The first concert in an occupied house in 1982 was particularly noteworthy . The performance in London's Zig Zag is considered to be one of the most emotional concerts in English punk history. In 1984, the Orwell year , the band broke up. On the one hand, this went back to an old decision from the founding days, so all records on the Crass label had the numbering x21984 / y, where x represents the year up to 1984 (e.g. 1983 is written here as 121984 = one year to 1984), while y numbers the records published within the current year. This notation was omitted for the records that were released on the label after 1984, they were simply numbered consecutively as CAT.NO 1, CAT.NO 2 etc. On the other hand, they also felt burned out by the constant confrontation with the state and society.

gallery

  • Crass live 1984

  • Steve Ignorant 1981

  • Steve Ignorant 1981

  • Steve Ignorant 1981

  • Steve Ignorant 2010

  • Eve Libertine 1981

  • Eve Libertine 1984

  • Joy de Vivre 1984

Discography

  • 1978 - The Feeding of the 5000
  • 1979 - Stations of the Crass
  • 1979 - Reality Asylum / Shaved Women (Single)
  • 1980 - Nagasaki Nightmare / Big A Little A (Single)
  • 1981 - Penis Envy
  • 1982 - Christ - the Album
  • 1982 - Christ - the Movie (Video)
  • 1982 - Sheep Farming in the Falklands (Flexi)
  • 1982 How does it feel (Single)
  • 1983 - Yes Sir, I Will
  • 1983 Sheep Farming in the Falklands (Single)
  • 1984 - Who Dunnit? (Single)
  • 1984 You're Already Dead (Single)
  • 1984/85 - Acts of Love (Book & 12 ": 50 poems)
  • 1984 - Ten Notes on a Summer's Day (12 ")
  • 1985 - Best Before 1984
  • 1992 - You'll Ruin It for Everyone (Live Perth, 1981)

literature

Web links

Commons : Crass  - collection of images, videos and audio files