November 29, 2016 by Rich Cross
In a feature in The Guardian‘s music section, published earlier this month (4 November 2016), Steve Von Till of the Oakland metal band Neurosis select tracks from the 1980s British anarcho-punk scene and concludes that: ‘Crass were the mother of all bands’.
Von Till selects Discharge (Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing); Subhumans (From the Cradle to the Grave); Rudimentary Peni (When You Are a Martian Church); Crass (Mother Earth) and Chumbawamba (Stagnation/Liberation).
Rich Cross. 2017. 'Fifteen shades of grey', in Greg Bull and Mike Dines (eds.), And All Around Was Darkness, Itchy Monkey Press, pp.218-227. ISBN 978-1-291-74025-7.
Rich Cross. 2016. '"Stop the City showed another possibility": Mobilisation and Movement in Anarcho-Punk', in Matt Worley and Mike Dines (eds.), The Aesthetic of Our Anger: Anarcho-Punk, Politics, Music - 1979-1984, Minor Compositions: Colchester / New York / Port Watson. ISBN 978-1-57027-318-6 [ Free eBook download | Print copy available to buy from Minor Compositions ]
Rich Cross. 2016. '"Why do you think that they are laughing?", in Greg Bull and Mike Dines (eds.), 'Some of Us Scream Some of Us Shout': Myths, Folklore and Epic Tales of the Anarcho, (Itchy Monkey Press) [ Buy from Active Distribution or Situation Press ]
AK Press – Revolution by the Book
I was born with the natural drive towards hating authority. Do not get me wrong i was from a working class family and my parents were loving and that was not a problem in fact it made me survive school….it was school..it was nuns…it was priests..the moment i left my mothers side into that catholic shithole was the day the first seeds of dissent were awoken. Fortunately it was just an ordinary school and i could go back home at 3.15pm everyday but it was the beginning of an awful time lasting another 8 years when i got to comprehensive school which was freer even though it was still catholic but no nuns or priests or evil teachers so trauma disappeared but i still despised authority…i did not want to know about e=mc2 or how big Australia or at least i did not want it forced down my neck…i then then got into punk…about 1978…and not long after Crass feeding of the five thousand the first pressing on small wonder(which is battered but i still have it ; )) and i became happy that there were others who believed what i believed…it was great….this eventually led to my expulsion because of acts i took on my own…posters…stickers etc…to anti war demo’s….to stop the city and so on and so forth…………..Crass was valuable to many of us isolated kids…but it sort of saddens me that the drive died in many and much bullshit emerged….anarchists became teachers…social workers….one joined the army…loads got married and had children…..it was dying a slow painful death….for many punk and anarchism was lifestyle and that sucked and i see it still is……movements are systems and systems kill…..NOT MARRIED…NO KIDS…NON-CONFORMIST STILL…mikey T : )
I’ve just re-read what I wrote nearly a year ago. Good grief what a rant. Accurate but still a rant. Must have been tired that day tra la la la la 💞💕💜