Captain Sensible - This Is Your Captain Speaking

CAPTAIN SENSIBLE - 
THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING

Many individuals hitherto unassociated with politics and protest were also coming forward and joining the ranks of anti-war demonstrators in a bid to voice objection, a good example of this being Captain Sensible from seminal Punk pranksters The Damned.

Famously known as the guitarist who when not dressed in a variety of fancy dress costumes would often be naked on stage save for a guitar held by a strap adorned with the slogan 'Sod the whale', the Captain was not thought of as being the most serious of people. It was a surprise then, to see him appear on the Crass label with the EP This Is Your Captain Speaking, railing against the notion that 'the Russians are coming'.

Apparently very taken by the lyrics of Crass, the Captain felt, however, that their music was rubbish so had approached them with the idea of a collaboration. Flush with the success of their previous releases the offer was taken up, resulting in a Crass/Damned hybrid that unfortunately didn't really do justice to either band.

Driven by Captain Sensible's melodic, almost traditional rock'n'roll-style guitar playing over the drumming of Penny Rimbaud, the first track on the EP, entitled The Russians Are Coming, had the Captain declaring "I feel so bored with hate, so tired of hate, want peace but I can't wait. I feel so tired of war, so bored with war, can't be what life is for? Don't I have the right to live? Hate and war is all they give. Want to live my life, be free, but they stole my world from me. The Russians are coming - I don't believe a word. The Russians are coming - it's all I've ever heard. The Russians are coming - I don't wanna hear it any more. The Russians are coming - I won't sit by and take their bloody war."

Accompanied by girl band Dolly Mixture on backing vocals it was hardly typical Damned subject matter.

On the track (What D'Ya Give) The Man Who's Gotten Everything, the Captain sings of the emptiness of a rags to riches life: "From racing pigeons I'm a self-made chap, I bought everything I can but it's a load of crap. Something failed in my masterplan cos I'm bored if I can't spend, I'm bored if I can." This being a neat echo of the Crass stencil slogan 'Wealth is a ghetto'.

The final track, Our Souls To You, was a hymn-like play on the similarity between the words 'our souls' and 'arseholes', that unfortunately wasn't actually as amusing as it might have seemed at the time of recording: "Lord, we've sinned against Thee, worked and schemed against Thee and now You're free to punish us. We've worked and schemed against Thee, punish us and teach us and we'll give our souls to You. Arseholes to You."

Years later, Captain Sensible would say he was very proud of the record and would consider it the best thing he ever did. This Is Your Captain Speaking, however, would turn out to be a financial loss for Crass Records though there wasn't any one particular reason for this.

As a record it was perfectly adequate and being by a member of The Damned should have widened its receptive audience beyond the traditional Crass base. The fact that it was neither really a Crass-type record nor a Damned record seemed instead to work against it, causing it to fall between two stools.

As a piece of polemic it also didn't really work. Whilst it was interesting to hear Captain Sensible displaying his political sensibilities, it may well have been more effective if he had done so under the Damned banner rather than joining the Crass camp to do it? As a Crass Records release it lacked also a certain energy, an invigoration, a strangeness; a cutting edge that other releases on the label all possessed.

On the other hand, it was good to see a display of unity between Captain Sensible and Crass. For Crass themselves, it was gratifying to be given the thumbs-up from one of Punk's old guard instead of the usual (and incessant) jibes from the like of Garry Bushell. And for Captain Sensible, after six days in the studio with Crass he turned vegetarian.

If only Happy Talk by Captain Sensible had been released on Crass Records? It could have given the label a Number One hit record? It could have changed the world! Or at least confounded absolutely everyone's expectations of what Crass were about? And what more fitting lyrics could there be for a Crass/Anarcho Punk anthem: "Happy talk keep talking happy talk, talk about things you'd like to do. You got to have a dream. If you don't have a dream how you gonna make a dream come true?"