Crass

Crass were a punk rock band formed in 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). 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. 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 and former member of avant garde performance art group Exit 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 vocals 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.

Shortly afterwards the band adopted a policy of wearing black clothes at all times. This, along with their distinctive stage backdrop (a banner featuring an amalgamation of several 'symbols of authority' including the Christian Cross, the swastika and the Union Jack combined with a two headed snake consuming itself (a representation of the idea that power will eventually destroy itself)- see cover of The Feeding Of The 5000 below) gave them a militaristic image, which led some to accuse them of fascism. However Crass explained that their uniform appearance was intended to be a statement against the cult of the personality, so that, in contrast to what was the norm for many rock bands, no member would be identified as the group 'leader'. It was also part of Crass' strategy of presenting themselves as a 'barrage of contradictions', which also included using loud, aggresive music to promote a pacifist message.

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

Crass' first release was in 1978 on the Small Wonder label. This was an 18 track 12" single entitled The Feeding Of The 5000. However the group encountered problems when workers at the Irish pressing plant contracted to manufacture the disc refused to handle it due to the allegedly blasphemous content of the song "Reality Asylum". The record was eventually released with this track removed and replaced by two minutes of silence, wryly retitled "The Sound Of Free Speech". This incident also prompted Crass to set up their own record label in order to retain full editorial control over their material, and "Reality Asylum" was shortly afterwards issued in a re-recorded and extended form as a 7" single (NB. A later repress of The Feeding Of The 5000 on Crass records restored the missing track).

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

As well as releasing their own material, Crass were able to use Crass Records to make available recordings by other performers, the first of which was the 1980 single "You Can Be You" by Honey Bane, a teenage girl who at the time was staying at Dial House whilst on the run from a children's home. Others who recorded for the label included Zounds, Flux Of Pink Indians, Icelandic band KUKL (who included singer Bjork), classical singer Jane Gregory, and the Poison Girls, a like-minded band who worked closely with Crass for several years. They also put out three editions of Bullshit Detector, compilations of demos and rough recordings that had been sent to the band which they felt represented the DIY punk ethic. The catalogue numbers of Crass Records releases were intended to represent a countdown to the year 1984 (eg, 521984 meaning "five years until 1984"), both the year that Crass stated that they would split up, and a date charged with significance in the anti-authoritarian calendar due to George Orwell's novel of the same name (see 1984 (novel)).

Crass released their third album Penis Envy in 1981. This marked a departure from the somewhat 'macho', 'hardcore punk' image that Feeding of the 5000 and it's follow up Stations of the Crass had to some extent given the group, for it featured more obviously complex musical arrangements, as well as exclusively female vocals provided by Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre (although Steve Ignorant remained a group member and is credited on the record sleeve as not on this recording). The album addressed feminist issues and once again attacked the institutions of 'the system' such as marriage and sexual repression. One track, a deliberately sacharine parody of an 'MOR' love song entitled "Our Wedding", was given away as a flexi disk with a teenage girl's romance magazine after having been offered it by an organisation calling itself Creative Recording And Sound Services (note the initials). A minor tabloid furore erupted once the hoax was revealed, with the News of the World going so far as to state that the album's title was "too obscene to print".

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.

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 that included a performance of Britten's "War Requiem". At the time of writing (March 2003) The Crass Collective continue to perform on a regular basis at the Vortex Jazz Club in Stoke Newington, North London.

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 unless otherwise stated)

The Feeding Of The 5000 (12" single, 1978, originally released by Small Wonder Records)
"Reality Asylum" (7", 1978)
Stations Of The Crass (LP, 1979)
"You Can Be You" (single by Honey Bane, backed by Crass under the name 'Donna and the Kebabs', 1980)
"Bloody Revolutions" (single, joint released with the Poison Girls, 1980)
"Tribal Rival Rebel Revels" (Flexi disc single given away with Toxic Grafity (sic) fanzine, 1980)
"Nagasaki Nightmare" (single, 1981))
Penis Envy (LP, 1980)
"Our Wedding" (flexi disc single recorded under the name Creative Recording And Sound Services given away with teenage girls magazine Loving)
"Merry Crassmas" (single, 1981, Crass' tongue in cheek stab at the Xmas novelty market...)
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 1983)
"Whodunnit?" (Single, 1983, Crass' 'tribute' to the re-election of prime minister Margaret Thatcher
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)
Christ: The Bootleg (recorded live in Nottingham, 1984, released 1989 on Allied records)
Christ: The Movie (a series of short films by Mick Duffield that were shown at Crass performances, VHS, released 1990)
Semi-Detached (Video Collages by Gee Vaucher, 1978-1984, VHS, 2001)
You'll Ruin It For Everyone (recorded live in Perth, Scotland, 1981, released 2001 on Pomona records)

Crass

Crass were

Discography

Recommended reading

See also