THE NEW ISSUE of Vive Le Rock magazine (No 107, December 2023) includes a three-page retrospective feature on the Bullshit Detector compilations released on Crass Records in the early 1980s.

The recollections of Crass members Penny Rimbaud and Steve Ignorant are mixed in with the memories of Rich Cross (Metro Youth), Boffo (Chumbawamba), Miles Ratledge (Napalm Death) and Martin Bowes (Attrition).

Asked to reflect on the relevance of Bullshit Detector, more than four decades on, Steve Ignorant says: “If you want to know anything about the start of the 1980s, listen to those records and read the lyrics, because that’s what the 1980s was like.”

All three albums in the Bullshit Detector series were re-released earlier this year on Crass Records with the support of the One Little Independent label.

Lee Powell. 2023. National Service. Vive Le Rock, No 107, pp.32-34.