Wessex '82

WESSEX '82

For quite some time, Dick Lucas had been releasing cassette tapes of early Subhumans demos and gigs on his own Bluurg Tapes label. Buoyed by the success of his band and taking a cue from Spiderleg and Crass Records, the next logical step was to set up his own record label. Bluurg Records was the result and the début release was a 7" compilation EP entitled Wessex '82, featuring one track each from the Subhumans, the Pagans, Organized Chaos, and the A Heads.

With a cover adorned with a photo of the giant white horse cut into the hill at Westbury, the EP was an empathetic gesture of solidarity and support to the Subhumans' Punk neighbours. Apart from their mutual surroundings, all the bands on the record shared a buzzing, tuneful style of Punk that lifted the different vocal styles to a similar level of energised joy.

Lyrically, all the thoughts expressed in the songs shared also an almost world weary cynicism, turned upside down by the music to become celebratory: "No thanks sonny, you're no use any more... You'd better wave goodbye to your dreams... You're just a fucking victim... What's the use in trying too hard?"

If feeling like this was a sign of the times then coming together with like-minded souls was a way perhaps of dealing with it all? Subhumans and the tribe of bands around them as featured on the EP were helping and finding strength in each other to create something from the hopelessness of the world and then moving forward together into a brighter and better future.

Realising that isolation from any centre of activity such as London or any other major city was no hindrance to creativity was a small but very significant step forward. All that was needed was for just one person (such as Dick Lucas, for example) or a small collective of people (such as the Subhumans, for example) to show by example and the ball could start rolling; creating (in Wiltshire, for example) the most extraordinary flowerings (of Punk, for example).

A spark that could light a flame that could start a fire.

Or to quote Situationist Raoul Vaneigem: "From this moment despair ends and tactics begin. Despair is the infantile disorder of the revolutionaries of everyday life."