DRONGOS
FOR EUROPE - ETERNITY
Like an incurable,
ever-mutating virus, Punk had by 1982 spread throughout the whole of
Europe and North America, its different strains erupting gloriously
anywhere and everywhere. Whilst the sounds, styles, attitudes and
politics (or lack of) of different Punk bands were constant and
common factors in shaping how any new Punk band might be, so too was
geography and environment. Meaning where any Punk band was from was
always a massive influence upon the way they were.
Stiff Little Fingers, for
example, could only have come from Northern Ireland and the Dead
Kennedys could only have come from California. The Angelic Upstarts
could only have come from South Shields and The Business could only
have come from South London. It made sense that the Exploited were
urban, from the city of Edinburgh and it made sense that Crass were
rural, from the Essex countryside. And it made sense that a band like
Drongos For Europe, despite their name, were thoroughly British. It
made sense, even, that they were from Birmingham, the geographical
centre of England.
Eternity was the
title of Drongos For Europe's second independently released 7"
single that year and was a fine example of all the right elements
colliding at the right time and at the right place to produce an
absolute classic record. The title track conjured up images of a
William Blake poem put to Punk music, grounding it firmly to a sense
of Englishness symbolised as Albion yet enabling it to soar
heavenwards.
British Summertime,
on the flip-side, was a song of praise for the inner city riots of
'81; poetically brilliant in itself for simply equating the idea of
British summertime with barbed wire, riot shields, bricks, complete
disorder and mob rule. If summertime represented life in full bloom
then so too did a riot.
Birmingham, like many
other industrial towns and cities throughout the country was under
attack from rampant Thatcherism and its accompanying economic
policies resulting in large scale unemployment. Birmingham,
specifically in the Handsworth area of the city, also happened to be
one of the first towns where rioting had erupted following the riots
in Liverpool and Manchester.
High unemployment was one
of the reasons that had been immediately put forward as a way of
explaining the inner city riots and though joblessness was certainly
a contributing factor, it was in no way the absolute cause. Secretary
of State for Employment, Norman Tebbit, had famously announced at the
Conservative Party conference in 1981 that when his father was out of
work he didn't riot but instead got on his bike and looked for work.
Though roundly condemned by an incensed Left at the time, Tebbit
actually wasn't wrong. Unemployment didn't naturally lead to rioting.
Far nearer to the truth
was the notion being put forward by Drongos For Europe: that a riot
was an exertion of power from the powerless and something that should
very much be celebrated. Just as summer is celebrated.
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