The Hippies Now Wear Black

The anarcho-punk movement in the UK, 1977-1984

The author

The Hippies Now Wear Black author Rich Cross has written and given conference and meeting papers on different aspects of anarcho-punk since the late 1990s. Publications and presentations include the following (materials with clickable titles are available in full-text):

Journal articles

Book chapters and contributions

  • 2021. ‘Autonomy and the City: The short life and sudden death of London’s anarchist punk centre’, in Jim Donaghey, Caroline Kaltefleiter and Will Boisseau (eds.), ‘Smash the System!’ Punk Anarchism as a Culture of Resistance, Active Distribution. [forthcoming].
  • 2021. ‘The “Crass logo”‘, in Ivana Vojnić Vatarić, Marko Vojnić, Mike Dines and Russ Bestley (eds.), I’m not Penny Rimbaud! Who the hell is Penny Rimbaud?, Itchy Monkey Press, pp.136-139. ISBN 9781800499263.
  • 2020. ‘Stop The City ci ha mostrato un’altra possibilità: “Mobilitazione” e “movimento” nell’anarcopunk’, in Giulio D’Errico (ed), Attitudine riottosa: Anarcopunk in UK. Milan, Italy: AgenziaX, pp.43-88. ISBN 978-88-31268-20-2
  • 2017. ‘When John met Clem’, in Greg Bull and Mike Dines (eds.), And All Around Was Darkness, Itchy Monkey Press, pp.229-232. ISBN 978-1-291-74025-7
  • 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
  • 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 ]
  • 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 ]
  • 2015. ‘Crass Exeter September 1982’, in Gregory Bull and Mickey ‘Penguin’ (eds.), Not Just Bits of Paper, Perdam Babylonis Nomen Publications, pp.36-40. ISBN-10: 1505703387; ISBN-13: 9781505703382 [ Buy book from the Situation Press shop ]
  • 2014. ‘British Anarchism in the era of Thatcherism’, in Evan Smith and Matthew Worley (eds.), Against the Grain: The British Far Left from 1956 (Manchester: Manchester University Press) [ See MUP catalogue entry for details of the book ] [ See Google Books preview ]

Presentations, seminar and conference papers

  • 2020. ‘Stop the City’,  [online audio presentation], part of an event at Cox18, Milan to promote the launch of the book Attitudine riottosa. Anarcopunk in UK, with Giulio D’Errico, Nicola Del Corno and Marco Philopat, 16 July
  • 2017. ‘The Politics of Punk’, with Steve Ignorant and Ruth Elias, Punk It Up!, Rough Trade Nottingham, 15 July
  • 2015. ‘”Movements are systems, and systems kill”: the reluctant collectivity of anarcho-punk’, Youth, Politics and Identity Symposium, [The Subcultures Network – AHRC Networking Project: Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change], University of Surrey, 31 March
  • 2013. ‘You’ll Never Beat the System by Bombing Number 10’: Perceptions of the Utility of Political Violence in Anarcho-Punk, 1977-1987, No Sir, I Won’t conference, Oxford Brookes University, 28 June
  • 2002. ‘The Politics of Punk’. Paper given at Sources of Radicalism seminar, University of Manchester, 11 May
  • 2001. ‘Yes that’s right, punk is dead: Crass and the anarcho-punk critique’. Paper given at No Future conference, University of Wolverhampton, 21 September
  • 2000. ‘The Politics of Crass and Anarcho-Punk’, presentation for Riotous Assembly meeting, Manchester, 7 March
  • 1999. ‘Anarchism and Punk Rock’, presentation for WEA course on Anarchism, Manchester, November
  • 1999. ‘Stop the City: A history’. Paper given at Riotous Assembly meeting, Manchester, 1 June

Newspaper and magazine articles

Online

Other interviews, extracts and reprints

  • 2017. ‘Stop the City showed another possibility’: Mobilisation and movement in anarcho-punk’, in Stevphen Shukaitis (ed.), Stop the City [booklet accompanying ‘Stop the City… Revisited’, An exhibition organized as part of the “Discipline the City” series, The Substation, Singapore, 23 August–23 November], republished from Matt Worley and Mike Dines (eds.), 2016. The Aesthetic of Our Anger: Anarcho-Punk, Politics, Music – 1979-1984, Minor Compositions: Colchester / New York / Port Watson.
  • Alistair Livingston. 2014. ‘Everyone was an anarchist’, greengalloway, 10 March [includes an extract from the ‘Stop the City’ article in Freedom]
  • Erin Yanke. 2014.’Poison Girls’, Maximum RocknRoll, No 379, December [includes extracts from the ‘Stop the City’ article in Freedom]
  • Ian Glasper. 2006. ‘Metro Youth’, in The Day the Country Died, London: Cherry Red, pp.227-230.
  • Lance Hahn. 2002. ‘”There’s too much on my mind”: The Story of Metro Youth / Sanction’, Maximum RocknRoll, No 224, January [interview on band histories]

Between 1979 and 1984, he wrote and performed with Exeter punk bands Metro Youth and Sanction. In addition to a host of DIY demo and live cassettes, the bands’ commerical releases to date are:

  • Metro Youth. 2005. ‘Red Rifles’. Anti-War: Anarcho-punk compilation volume I [CD compilation]. Newcastle: Overground Records
  • Sanction. 2005. ‘Unknown Soldier’. Anti-War: Anarcho-punk compilation volume I [CD compilation]. Newcastle: Overground Records
  • Metro Youth. 2000. ‘Brutalised’. Year Zero: Exeter punk, 1977-2000 [CD compilation]. Exeter: Hometown Atrocities
  • Metro Youth. 1982. ‘Brutalised’. Bullshit Detector II [vinyl compilation double-LP]. London: Crass Records

Rich co-edited and produced the Catalyst zine, six issues of which were published between 1982 and 1984 (some print copies of which are held in the Devon Local Studies library), the one-off Put A Brave Face On It zine, and contributed to the work of many other zines and fanzines, including Exeter’s Obnoxious and the Forest of Dean’s Radical Hedgehog.

Along with his band mates, he provided interviews for The Day the Country Died on the work of both Metro Youth and Sanction; and was interviewed by Lance Hahn about the history of both bands for MAXIMUMROCKNROLL No 224 in January 2002.

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