Crass - Bloody Revolutions / Poison Girls - Persons Unknown

CRASS - BLOODY REVOLUTIONS

POISON GIRLS - PERSONS UNKNOWN

Released in May 1980 on their own label, Bloody Revolutions was Crass's second 7" single and it found them hitting a high water mark in all areas. In hindsight even, it could arguably be the best record they ever produced? Incorporating a range of styles, tempos and influences all into one song as well as uniting the vocals of Steve Ignorant and Eve Libertine for the first time, it was the most ambitious record they had ever created for sure. And without any question, it was one of the most straight-forward and directly political records created too. Ever.

"You talk about revolution, well that's fine," begins Steve Ignorant "But what are you going to be doing come the time? Are you gonna be the big man with the tommy gun? Will you talk of freedom when the blood begins to run? Well, freedom has no value if violence is the price. I don't want your revolution, I want anarchy and peace."

As was typically the case with Crass songs, the point of Bloody Revolutions was arrived at immediately - like a news bulletin - wasting no time on metaphors, euphemisms or symbolism.

From the 1960s and onwards the Far Left within Britain had always made great play with the theme of revolution, particularly when engaging with youth. Protest in any form had become inexorably linked with socialist and communist ideas, more often than not led by and promoted by vanguards of University-educated intellectuals advocating various brands of political dogma be it Trotskyism, Marxism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism and all colours red in-between. But however much a fundamental change in conditions within Britain (and the world) was required, the kind of revolution favoured by all these would-be new leaders in waiting essentially meant the replacement of one political system with another and one political elite for another.

"You talk of overthrowing power with violence as your tool, you speak of liberation and when the people rule. Well ain't it people rule right now? What difference would there be? Just another set of bigots with their rifle sights on me."

So bound were these self-styled revolutionaries to their political treatises and credos that they were easy targets for satire and caricature, no more amusingly done than in the BBC comedy series Citizen Smith starring Robert Lindsay as the hapless leader of the Tooting Popular Front.

"Power to the people!" Citizen Smith cried out at the start of each episode, his clenched fist raised high - only to be met with a withering look from a passing old lady.

"Viva la revolution! People of the world unite! Stand up men of courage, it's your job to fight!" Eve Libertine calls out midway through Bloody Revolutions, only to be countered by Steve Ignorant in full Punk rant mode: "It all seems very easy, this revolution game but when you start to really play, things won't be quite the same. Your intellectual theories on how it's going to be don't seem to take into account the true reality. Cos the truth of what you're saying as you sit there sipping beer is pain and death and suffering, but of course you wouldn't care."

To a generation this would have been the first time they would ever have encountered genuine anarchist opinion and it was being made all the more powerful by the clear and precise intonation of Eve Libertine's vocals: "So don't think you can fool me with your political tricks. Political Right, political Left - you can keep your politics." Once again, the message that Crass were conveying was a revelatory one, challenging not only preconceived ideas but coming across as straight-forward and absolute common sense: "Government is government and government is force. Left or Right or Right or Left, it takes the same old course. Oppression and restriction, regulation, rule and law. The seizure of that power is all your revolution's for."

If all that the Far Left could advocate was revolution leading to just another form of government and the continued centralisation of power, then ultimately how radical were their ideas? Was not a revolution, after all, a movement describing a complete circle? And would not a revolution even for the hell of it be simply a bloody adventure leading straight back to where it began, as in "oppression, restriction, regulation, rule and law"?

Crass were raising the flag instead for anarchy in the UK as a serious proposition, advising those with a more socialist inclination not to look to their political leaders for answers but to themselves: "You romanticise your heroes, quote from Marx and Mao. Well, their ideas of freedom are just oppression now. Nothing's changed for all the death that their ideas created, it's just the same fascistic games but the rules aren't clearly stated. Nothing's really different cos all government's the same, they can call it freedom but slavery is the game."

Crass had been playing under an anarchist banner for some time and had played benefit gigs in aid of the Anarchist Black Cross and in support of the British anarchists known as Persons Unknown, whose comrades at that time were being charged with conspiring with 'persons unknown' to cause explosions. Bloody Revolutions was Crass nailing themselves firmly to the anarchist mast, not only in words but in action. All the money to be made from the sale of the record would go towards the setting up of an anarchist centre in London; a place where like-minded people could meet and share their ideas, as well as being an alternative venue for bands to play.

Though Bloody Revolutions was sold for just 70p a copy, in the end over £12,000 would be raised for the proposed centre, which would open the following year in an old warehouse in Wapping, in East London. The Autonomy Centre, as it was called, though it wouldn't last very long was to be the catalyst for buildings to be taken over in a similar fashion not only in other areas of London but in cities throughout Britain.

"There's nothing that you offer but the dream of last year's hero." declared Crass in unison as a final summing up of the Far Left "The truth of revolution, brother - is Year Zero." If their previous actions, words and records had not already suggested it, Bloody Revolutions sealed Crass's reputation as being the hardest of the hardcore.

"I actually agree with much of what Crass say," commented John Peel after playing the record on his show "They would probably view me, however, and my role at the BBC as part of what they're against." This, even after Peel had awarded Crass a session the year before.

'Anarchy in the UK. Work for it now.' stated one of the many slogans adorning the sleeve of Bloody Revolutions. 'Abort the system. Do it now. Not a dream. Peace please. Anarchy now. Ignore rock'n'roll heroes. It's your life, live it. Demand more, it's always there. They said that we were trash. Love, not war. This time it's for real.' After a history of fake rebellion and false promises throughout the whole of rock'n'roll's torrid and chequered past, this time it did indeed appear to be for real.

Joining Crass on the other side of the record was Poison Girls who had by this time become their regular touring partners, offering up a song going by the title Persons Unknown. Fronted by forty-five year-old mother of two, Vi Subversa, Poison Girls were a curious counterbalance to the perceived hard-line stance held by Crass. Similarly politically charged though with more personal and more feminist-leaning lyrics, they were a fascinatingly challenging band on many levels.

The term 'persons unknown' was the catch-all name given to describe the people whom Irish and British anarchists Ronan Bennett and Iris Mills were accused of conspiring with to cause explosions in a somewhat ludicrous showcase trial involving trumped-up charges emanating from the British Security Services/Anti-Terrorist Squad.

Ronan Bennett was alleged to have links with the IRA and on linking up with Iris Mills who was a member of the editorial team behind anarchist newspaper Black Flag, fears were sparked of a new Angry Brigade-style bombing campaign on mainland Britain. The fact that no actual explosions had occurred and that there was no evidence at all regarding whom the accused were meant to be conspiring with - hence the term 'persons unknown' - suggested either basic State paranoia and incompetence or more worryingly, an endeavour by the State to make thought a crime.

Poison Girls reaction to the issue was to ask who might it be that the State actually meant when they referred to 'persons unknown'?:

"This is a message to persons unknown" begins Vi in her knowing but strangely smoke-ravaged voice "Persons in hiding, persons unknown. Survival in silence isn't good enough no more, keeping your mouth shut, head in the sand. Terrorists and saboteurs each and every one of us, hiding in shadows - persons unknown. Hey there Mr Average, you don't exist, you never did, hiding in shadows - persons unknown. Habits of hiding soon will be the death of us, dying in secret from poisons unknown."

A long list is then recited of everyone who could possibly be construed as being 'persons unknown', ranging from "Housewives and prostitutes, plumbers in boiler suits, wild girls and criminals, patients in corridors, liggers and layabouts, lovers on roundabouts, accountants in nylon shirts, feminists in floral skirts, astronauts and celibates, deejays and hypocrites, liars and lunatics, pimps and economists, royalty and communists, rioters and pacifists" to "Visionaries with coloured hair, leather boys who just don't care, garter girls with time to spare, judges with prejudice, dissidents and anarchists, strikers and pickets, collectors of tickets, beggars and bankers, perjurers and men of law, smokers with heart disease, cleaners of lavatories, the old with their memories."

Though Ronan and Iris were eventually acquitted of all charges, Poison Girls were making it very clear that 'persons unknown' were indeed very real: "Flesh and blood are who we are, flesh and blood are what we are. Our cover is blown." Everyone and anyone was a 'person unknown', which meant that in the eyes of the State everyone and anyone was a potential conspirator.

Persons Unknown - as in the song - was masterful. A swirling, echoing psychedelic tour de force that soared above Crass's more grounded Bloody Revolutions, confirming Poison Girls' status as being an extremely original and very special band.

Loaded with copious sleeve notes and an array of contact addresses, along with a brilliantly rendered fold-out poster created by Crass silent member, Gee Vaucher, depicting the Pope, the Queen, Thatcher and the statue of Justice as the Sex Pistols; the whole record was not only a complete and extremely well thought-out package but a doorway - a portal - into a completely new and alternative world. A world diametrically opposite to the one not a million miles away that Thatcher, her government and its supporters were busy constructing...