I’m still picking up anarcho-fanzines and clipping collections through eBay – where they’re not insanely priced. A purchase from last week included a couple of gratis CD-Rs, one of which included some live anarcho-gigs recordings.
I was really chuffed to find that amongst those recordings was a full through-the-mixing-desk version of Crass’s set from a gig in Exeter in May 1984 – a gig that I organised. I wasn’t aware that there was a recording of this date, and was really happy to (accidentally) track down a copy.
I’ve picked up many a tape from BBP over the years. But on top of the output of DIY tape labels and distribution services, there must be *so* many personal live recordings from 1979-1984 anarcho-gigs out there – whether mixing desk run-offs or basic-as-hell condenser mike recordings from portal tape recorders. Let’s hope most people take the time to transfer them to digital before those thin strips of analog tape (now 25+ years old) stretch and snap irretrievably.
The Hippies Now Wear Black 
Hi Rich – I see there is a copy of Ability Stinks on ebay from 99p … if you don’t have it already.
Matt
is that the one with Annie Anxiety and No-Defences? I thought that was 1983? Maybe my memory is faulty. I was at a Crass gig in Exeter around then though.
Hi Sean – I was involved in putting together two such gigs – the first was on 17 September 1982 (with Crass, Dirt, Annie Anxiety, ‘Choosing Death’); and the second on 6 May 2004 (Crass, Flux, Annie, ‘Choosing Death’, No Defences and D&V) both at St George’s Hall, Exeter. So you would have been there in May 1984?
I was 🙂 . One of 3 crass gigs I went to. I was squatting with some of No-Defences in Camberwell, but just happened to be visiting my mum who had just moved to Devon, so got to go to the gig. We travelled back to London overnight ( a sleepy driver nearly getting us killed a couple of times) after the gig, I remember getting into London at dawn.
I liked No Defences politically and musically, but any traces of them seems to have disappeared.
I’ve posted the entire gig that the “Live at Centro Iberico” 7″ was taken from.
The quality is not great, as it was recorded via the condenser mics on my trusty ghetto blaster,and the tape is a second generation copy (and I was standing too close to the bass bins), but it’s no worse than some I’ve heard.
Track list: Conflict/ Kings and Punks/ Meat Means Murder/ No Island of Dreams/ The Guilt and the Glory/ One Nation Under the Bomb/ Blind Attack/ Vietnam serenade/ Blod morons/ 1824 Overture/ Exploitation/ Great What?/ Young Parasites/ Accept it/ Conflict 2/ Crazy Governments
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=0250010f328ca5350dec85adfe0a530af3290a10c7fe0e44b8eada0a1ae8665a