COLIN JERWOOD, frontman, songwriter and lyricist of the band Conflict since the early 1980s has died following a short illness.

Followers of the band were aware that Colin had been unwell recently, and unable to join the rest of the band in live appearances beginning with the Scarborough Punk Festival in March. At that show, and at some other dates since, co-vocalist Fiona Friel has covered many or all of the lead vocals.

At the gig at The Underground in Bradford a month ago (3 May), Colin returned to front of stage on the microphone but was clearly far from at full strength. Despite Fiona’s extended vocal input, Colin was obliged to cut the set short.

However, despite this break from fulltime frontman duties, the seriousness of Colin’s ill-health was not widely known, and was assumed to be temporary. His death – confirmed by his family and by the other members of the band on 2 June – has come as a profound shock to many in the scene.

It is with a very heavy heart to announce Colin passed away after a short illness. We know for his supporters that this is difficult news to hear.

We appreciate that many of you might want to share your condolences. We have set up this online memorial page that you can contribute to. You can also donate to charities in his memory.

https://colinjerwood.muchloved.com/

Colin’s family meant the world to him and he would want their wishes to be respected. We kindly request that you do not attend his funeral. His family will be reading through any comments on the memorial page and your presence will be felt.

We appreciate all your support for Colin and Conflict over the years.

In solidarity,

James and Georgia Jerwood

Message from the band: As you can imagine we are struggling to find the words to describe how sad and upset we feel upon hearing of the loss of our band member and dear friend Colin. We extend our deepest condolences to James, Georgia and the rest of Colin’s family and friends. We ask that you respect their wishes and understand that we are all currently grieving a great loss. Thank you.

Gav, Fi, Fran and Matt.

Colin Jerwood (aka Colin Conflict) became a prominent figure in early UK anarcho-punk. In the ferment of the London anarchist punk scene, Conflict drew particular attention following the release of the band’s impressive debut seven-inch The House That Man Built on Crass Records in 1981. By the time that Conflict’s first album It’s Time To See Who’s Who was released on the Corpus Christi label in 1983, the band’s singular musical and lyrical style had been further refined – and through that process the persona of Colin Conflict had become indivisible to the band.

Whilst their early activities placed them close to the orbit of Crass, from the outset Conflict were keen to distinguish themselves from many of their anarchist punk contemporaries.

REFUSAL

From the decision to proactively engage with the mainstream music press (finding an early ally in the Crass-hostile Garry Bushell in the process), through the experiments with the iconography of ‘nihilism’, to the refusal to dismiss the importance of the question of social class – Conflict’s approach to navigating the terrain of DIY punk often took the band on the path less travelled.

Whilst the band were committed anti-militarists, Colin was keen that Conflict not be tainted by any association with the ‘peace and love’ antecedents of hippy or sixties counterculture. Very much shaped by Colin’s worldview, Conflict quickly developed an identity that set aside a commitment to pacifism and which promoted the unapologetic physical defence of punk spaces from attack.

What quickly became one of the defining commitments of the band – reflected in their songs, through countless benefit gigs, and in band members’ own activism – was the politics of animal rights and of the animal liberation movement.

Many of Colin’s most powerful lyrics addressed the issues of animal suffering, the exploitation of animals by human kind, and the need to mobilise and take direct action in defence of animal kind.

From the work of the Hunt Saboteurs Association to the activities of the Animal Liberation Front, Conflict were amongst the most vocal punk supporters, advocates and promoters.

SHARPNESS

Those who’ve followed the band’s work since the early 1980s are likely to have their own personal highlights drawn from Conflict’s long musical and political canon. While opinions will differ, one common reference point for many will be the incendiary To A Nation of Animal Lovers EP, released on Corpus Christi in 1983.

With Colin sharing vocal duties with Steve Ignorant of Crass, the record seethes with rage, contempt and grief about the industrial scale abuse of animals – from laboratory experimentation to factory farming – urging uncompromising protest and resistance in response. It’s the match of musical and political intensity, with the sharpness of focus and the clarity of intent that makes it a landmark release in Conflict’s earliest years, and which set a challenging standard to better.

Over time, and in alignment with other bands and publications in the anarchist and punk scenes, Conflict played an important role in helping to articulate a more combative punk practice, which promoted raw class-based confrontation with authority and the state and which celebrated the power of militant mass action.

Across many decades, and despite the inevitable periods of hiatus and pause, Conflict played innumerable live shows and released a sprawling catalogue of singles, EPs, live and studio albums and compilations.

Through countless line-up changes, Colin remained the constant at the core of Conflict as other members came and went.

Some musicians’ association with the band was short-lived and far from life-changing. But for several, it was a defining experience – personally and musically. Like so many of those who valued and sustained the band, Colin was beset with grief at the loss of his friend and Conflict’s extraordinary drummer Francisco “Paco” Carreno, who died in February 2015 at the age of just 49.

LABEL

Colin was also central to setting up the Mortarhate label, which – sharing the same collaborative DIY model as Crass Records, Spiderleg, Bluurg and many others – provided a platform for other artists in the scene to put out vinyl. Mortarhate released records by Hagar the Womb, Icons of Filth, Lost Cherrees, The Waste and many others.

As a band, Conflict have regularly become entangled in controversy, and on occasion the band appear to have courted it – with Colin often at the centre of things.

The audacity of the notorious ‘Gathering of the 5000’ gig in Brixton in 1987 (which led to years of difficulties in booking live shows); the provocation of commissioning what became ‘The Offending Article’ for the sleeve of To A Nation of Animal Lovers; the allegations of impropriety in relation to royalty payments for Crass songs (published by Steve Ignorant in his biography, and later withdrawn as untrue); the contentious lyrics for the 2003 song An Option; some ill-judged social media commentary around the time the Black Lives Matter movement emerged – these, and many other, instances collectively enhanced, damaged and helped to mythologise the band’s reputation.

COMMITMENT

Many of those who witnessed blistering live shows by Conflict over the years will recall Colin’s propensity for ‘getting stuck in’ to settle fights in the audience – an approach that attracted both praise and criticism. Few doubted his willingess to put himself in harm’s way. It was a physical commitment that contrasted sharply with approach of many other bands in the scene. But it also reflected sometimes volatile impulses that were vividly documented, by someone who saw this up close, in the pages of Ignorant’s The Rest is Propaganda – memories which Colin did not publicly refute.

For several years, Colin had been working on the manuscript for his autobiography, which he had provisionally entitled Conflict, the Movement and Me. It would have been a truly fascinating read, a first-hand perspective from the anarcho-punk frontlines that would doubtless have defiantly rebuked all critics.

Through the band he fronted for so many years, what Colin leaves behind is an impressive body of impassioned, heartfelt work – demonstrating a lifelong commitment to the practice of DIY political punk, from which so many who heard the sounds of Conflict have drawn inspiration and motivation.

Many of the bands, artists and performers who worked with or alongside Conflict over the years have expressed their disbelief at Colin’s loss on social media. Writing on Facebook (3 June), Steve Ignorant described himself as “Shocked, stunned, devastated” at the news of his death. “Colin and me always considered ourselves brothers,” he continues. “We came through so much hardship and laughter together and I shall miss him terribly.”

Just one month ago (2 May), Conflict released This Much Remains, their new studio album and the band’s first since the LP There’s No Power Without Control was released back in 2003.

This Much Remains received widespread critical praise, and the band had been gearing up for a series of UK and European gigs to promote the release. It’s now an album with an unexpected and unwanted poignancy.

With everyone in and around the band, and in Colin’s family, torn up by the grief of his sudden loss, everything is up in the air for now.

In due course, there will be benefit and tribute gigs, the outpouring of reminiscences and shared recollections – and decisions to be made in relation to the future of the band and the handling of the Mortarhate catalogue. (See the 20 June update Conflict confirm live appearances – ahead of a final London tribute to singer Colin Jerwood for more information.)

But for now, many people are simply reeling from the shock of the premature loss of one of the scene’s longest serving stalwarts.

Photos: (Above), Conflict live at The Old Cold Store, Nottingham, 26 November 2022 – Rich Cross; (Top) Colin on stage at The 1865, Southampton, 28 June 2024 – Matt Rayner