Conflict - The House That Man Built

CONFLICT - THE HOUSE THAT MAN BUILT

From the pages of Sounds music paper, Garry Bushell was continuing to exert his influence by touting a variety of bands which to his credit were almost entirely of the Punk/Oi! type. Snippets of news concerning Conflict had been appearing regularly over the year in the gossip columns of Sounds, creating quite a bit of curiosity about this so-called 'street Crass band'.

According to Bushell, Conflict were more credible than Crass due to the fact that they were from working class Eltham, in London, whilst Crass were from a commune in the Essex countryside. For this reason alone, according to Bushell, Conflict were better placed to spread any kind of message as kids were more likely to identify with Conflict and therefore pay them more attention.

Only time would tell whether Bushell's assertion held any water though the obvious flaw in his argument was that Conflict were die-hard Crass fans and that somehow or other Crass had managed to reach out to them from their supposed 'safe Epping Forest home' and like-wise to many other kids out on council estates throughout the land.

Conflict were an interesting proposition. They were Clash fans who had become Crass fans, who were rightly proud to be Punk. With the rise of the Exploited, Punk rockers were becoming easily caricatured as spiky-haired or mohawked morons whose sole aim was to self-destruct via drink and drugs, causing as much chaos along the way as possible. The iconic, prime example of this, of course, was Sid Vicious in his full-blown caked-in-blood-'gimme a fix'-carved-into-his-chest mode although Kenny Everett as Gizzard Puke in The Kenny Everett Show and Ade Edmonson as Vyvyan in The Young Ones would add a more comic twist to the image.

The music press (and Bushell in particular) was drawing a distinct line between Exploited-type Punk bands and Crass bands though in reality both were attracting a lot of the same audience to their gigs. Apart from differences in their politics, of course, the Exploited and their ilk tended to be sartorially flamboyant while the Crass bands were more inclined toward wearing all black. Conflict seemed to be the exception to this. Though labelled by the music press as a 'Crass band' (if only through having their début record released on the Crass label), Conflict were fully embracing the traditional Punk dress style, reclaiming it from ridicule and lending it a hardened cool. Conflict looked good.

The title of Conflict's début record - The House That Man Built EP - referred to the pillars (or the man-made houses) of the system, in particular to the pillars of law, religion, the slaughterhouse, the tower block and the prison. 'Are you part of the cornerstones...' Conflict were asking 'Or the demolition team?'

Produced by one 'Elvis Rimrod', as with all other Crass Records 7" releases the record came in a beautifully designed fold-out sleeve, this time selling for just 80p. Containing four tracks, the first, entitled Conflict, as sung by lead vocalist Colin Jerwood laid out the band's basic anarchist position: "This side, that side, that side, this side, what side, any side - you can't side me."

The second track, I've Had Enough, as sung by transitory vocalist Pauline, laid out a feminist stance: "This is mankind and mankind kills, you think women are just here for your thrills? Your filthy morals just fucking stink, don't try and get my hands in your sink. Don't call me your bird, I'm not your pet. Well, I've had enough, right up to my neck."

The third, Wargames, was an almost obligatory anti-war statement: "Nuclear war isn't much fun, when The Bomb drops, where you gonna run?"

And the fourth, Blind Attack, another anarchist missive: "Left wing, Right wing, you've heard it all before but can you spot the difference when they're knocking at your door? ...We were told of Gods galore and heroes more but never of the people who were beaten to the floor. Told to admire all leaders great and tall but never told it was those bastards who made the people crawl. If you look quite deep enough you'll see it's all a con. A look at past history tells: All government is wrong."

When playing live, Conflict would produce an intense barrage of energy and anger that interestingly wasn't fully captured by 'Elvis Rimrod's' production in the studio. Interestingly too, Conflict were gaining a reputation as being handy with their fists and like fellow Londoners the Cockney Rejects, they had no qualms about physically taking on any troublemakers at their gigs.

If anything, Conflict were more realistic (or perhaps less idealistic?) than Crass and had no illusions about trying to make gangs of fighting skinheads see the error of their ways through reason and debate over a cup of tea and a biscuit. Instead, Conflict would - in the words of Steve Ignorant - just trounce the fuck out of them.

When in their personal space such as at a gig, Conflict were more than willing to use force to keep the peace but in their lyrics they still espoused the prevalent Crass/peace/pacifist line: "You can't change nothing with your violence and your hate, do you really think by smashing heads you're gonna change the State?"

There was an obvious dichotomy between how Conflict were dealing with violence at their gigs and what they were advocating in their lyrics but in many ways this was no bad thing as it was suggesting that not all Anarcho Punk bands calling for peace were a pushover for those holding more aggressively conservative views and who were intent on disruption.

Conflict were starting to gig regularly around the Punk/squat/small venue circuit but disappointingly for some reason were choosing not to play at what by then had become the mecca of all things alternative and counter-cultural - the annual Stonehenge Free Festival....