Crass

Crass were a punk rock band formed in 1977 after recording their demos of 1976, based around Dial House, an anarchist community near Epping in England. They were progenitors of a militant anarcho-pacifism that became pervasive in the punk music scene (see also anarcho-punk). Taking literally the punk manifesto of ‘anyone can do it’, they combined the use of song, film, sound collage, graphics and subversion to launch a sustained and innovative critical broadside against all that they saw as a culture built on foundations of war, violence, religious hypocrisy and blind consumerism.

Crass, originally thus named as a reference to David Bowie's song "Ziggy Stardust" (specifically the line "The kids was just crass"), came together when Dial House founder Penny Rimbaud (real name Jerry Ratter) began jamming with Steve Ignorant who was staying at the house at the time. Between them they put together the songs "So What?" and "Do They Owe Us A Living?" as a drums and bass duo. Other members of the household began to come onboard, and it was not long before Crass performed their first live gig as part of a squatted street festival at Huntley Street, North London.

Above; Crass pictured at the Digbeth Civic Hall, Birmingham, 1981

Crass all but retired from the public eye after becoming a particularly irritating thorn in the side of Mrs. Thatcher's Government during the Falklands War and the Miners Strike. Questions in Parliament led to a round of court battles and what the group describe as harassment that finally took its toll, and in 1984 the band retreated to Dial House to concentrate their energies elsewhere.

The philosphical and aesthetic influence of Crass on numerous punk bands from the 1980s on cannot be overstated, even if few bands mimicked their often free-form musical style, as evidenced on the album Yes Sir, I Will. Their collage-art black-and-white record sleeves produced by Gee Vaucher themselves became a signature aesthetic model.

Whereas the Sex Pistols' anarchism seemed to be a self-consciously nihilistic prank, Crass's anarchism was more directly linked to the libertarian socialist or communalistic varieties of 20th century political thought.

In November 2002 several former members of Crass collaborated under the name of The Crass Collective to arrange Your Country Needs You, a concert of "voices in opposition to war" held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank.

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Above; Sleeve art for Crass' "Feeding Of The 5000" 12" single

Crass were

Penny Rimbaud (drums)
Gee Vaucher (artwork)
Steve Ignorant (voice)
N.A.Palmer (Guitar)
Phil Free (Guitar)
Pete Wright (Bass)
Eve Libertine (Voice)
Joy De Vivre (Voice)
Mick Duffield (films)

Discography

(all released on the Crass record label)

"The Feeding Of The 5000" (12" single, 1978, originally released by Small Wonder Records)
"Reality Asylum" (7", 1978)
Stations Of The Crass (LP, 1979)
"Bloody Revolutions" (single, joint released with the Poison Girls, 1980)
"Tribal Rival Rebel Revels" (Flexi disc single given away with Toxic Grafity (sic) fanzine)
"Nagasaki Nightmare" (single, 1981))
Penis Envy (LP, 1981)
Christ The Album (LP, 1982)
"Sheep Farming In The Falklands" (single 1982, originally distrinuted anonymously as a flexi-disc)
"How Does It Feel To Be The Mother Of 1000 Dead?" (Single 1981)
Yes Sir I Will (LP, 1983)
"You're Already Dead" (single, 1984)
Acts Of Love (LP and book, 1985)
"Ten Notes On A Summer's Day" (12" single, 1986)
Best Before 1984 (Retrospective LP compilation, 1986)

Crass

Crass were

Discography

Recommended reading

See also