Hit Parade - Bad News

HIT PARADE - BAD NEWS

It wouldn't be until three years after the release of Inflammable Material by Stiff Little Fingers that the subject of the Troubles in Northern Ireland would once again be fully addressed, this time from a band called Hit Parade on a record released as might well have been expected on that most politically radical of labels - Crass Records.

Hit Parade was in actual fact primarily the work of just one man by the name of Dave Hyndman, an Irish libertarian involved in a variety of projects including a Belfast-based radical bookshop called Just Books, an anarchist newspaper called Outta Control, and a Belfast-based anarchist social centre.

Entitled Bad News, the record contained four songs dealing exclusively with the Irish political situation. Assisted by Eve Libertine, Penny Rimbaud and Phil Free; Hit Parade, however, were absolutely nothing like Stiff Little Fingers. Instead of raw Punk Rock, the music played was a genuinely interesting mix of Sparks and electro dance, laced with samples of dialogue including - naturally - the utterances of Thatcher. And instead of caustic Punk vocals, the songs were half-spoken, half-shouted in a broad, uncompromising Irish accent.

Hyndman crafted his songs in the style of lists, much in the same way as how Ian Dury - the master of the 'list song' - wrote many of his. In the track Here's What You Find In Any Prison, for example, he starts off by asking "What do you find in Her Majesty's prison?" before going on to cite "Those who can't accept the system. Those who won't co-operate with the forces of the British State... People who call the police shits, people who challenge the Brits... People framed through Diplock Courts, others jailed by police-paid touts... Grown people with childlike minds, people who can't pay their fines... Those who stand against oppression, people beaten to sign confessions... The working class fill it to the door. No rich, no Brits, just the poor..." and so on.

In the track H-Block, the song's title is repeated over and over, interspersed with snap responses: "British game. British shame. Orange State. To perpetuate. RUC. Brutality. Guilty surely. With no jury. Always lose. To bastard screws. Five demands. On Thatcher's hands. Bitter fight. Hunger strike. Blanket men. Bitter end," and so on before ending with a Crass-style chant of "1 2 3 4 - open up the H-Block door. 5 6 7 8 - open up the Armagh Gate. 9 10 11 12 - Margaret Thatcher go to hell."

In the title track of the EP, Hyndman describes how life as represented in the media, particularly in the news, bears little relation to life as experienced by the majority of people: "We watch the TV every night. Jesus! What a load of shite!" he begins "What we see and what we hear, nowhere in the newspapers... Our lives, hopes, fears, dreams, nowhere on your TV screens."

According to Hyndman, even when depicting the harsh realities of the wider world, the resultant images serve only as entertainment: "Images of death and famine, people starving, Ronald Reagan. Third World Wars, TV riots, anything to keep us quiet."

Television, then, was an opiate for the people. An elaborate trick of smoke and mirrors "designed to keep us impotent". Reinforcing State control and ensuring the 'national interest' would always prevail: "Propaganda for your class, disguised with a song and a laugh."

Though viewed from the perspective of the streets of Belfast, Hyndman's observations are easily recognizable and readily transferable to most other areas of the UK and so too his final, indignant rejection of all the manipulation and 'bad news': "We don't want your TV, we don't want your lies. We don't want to sit and stare at other people's lives."

The Bad News EP by Hit Parade was an innovative and highly politicised record, standing as a fine example of what Crass Records excelled at though due to its musical style, many pure Punk Rock fans found it initially difficult to connect with and digest. In time, however, it would be seen as a masterly amalgamation of a variety of Crass elements: Penny Rimbaud's (very apt) military drumming, the use of sampling, the localised accent of the lead vocals, the hardline attitude, the expounding upon the subject matters of the songs in type on the fold-out sleeve (in this instance a full account of the H-Block hunger strikes), the donation of any profit from the sell of the record to a worthy cause (in this instance a Prisoners Book Scheme), and of course, the anarchist nature and intent.

Interestingly, in a bid to avoid appropriation by either Republican or Loyalist forces, Crass took the unusual step of issuing a disclaimer regarding the contents of Bad News in the form of a note enclosed within the record's sleeve:

'Crass would like to make it clear that we no more support the Republican IRA and its related splinter paramilitary groups than we do the Unionist UDR or RUC and its related splinter terrorist groups. Nor do we support the presence in Northern Ireland of the British army or of British 'interests'. All of these organisations are concerned with the seizure, or maintenance, of power and the control and manipulation of the Unionist, Republican and non-sectarian population. We do not support the IRA's 'nationalist' ideas of a united Socialist Ireland any more than the racist ideas expressed by the RUC, UDR and supported by Westminster.

Our concern for the H-Block prisoners is humanitarian and not sectarian and is the same concern that we feel for all those who suffer the direct effects of violent oppression, be it by the State, political groups, or the individual.

As long as populations are unable to take a united stand against all forms of oppression, they will remain subservient to it.'

Serious problems in such serious times demanded serious responses and Crass were nothing but serious. As individuals they remained as charming and approachable as ever but united under the banner of 'Crass' their stance was hardening whilst their anger grew ever more fierce and acute. They had always fully been aware of the significance of what was going on in Northern Ireland and its relationship and effect upon the British State. From songs such as Banned From The Roxy, to Fun Going On, to Big A Little A, Crass recognised Belfast as being the perfect training ground for British troops in an urban environment where extreme methods of social control could be practised: "Palaces for kings and queens, mansions for the rich, protection for the wealthy, defence of privilege. They've learnt the ropes in Ireland, engaged in civil war, fighting for the ruling classes in their battle against the poor. So Ireland's just an island? It's an island of the mind. Great Britain? Future? Bollocks! You'd better look behind."

Belfast was the British State war machine on manoeuvres whilst the Falklands war had underlined how that same war machine could very easily be mobilised for party political reasons. It didn't end there, however. Those holding the reins of power - the ruling class, for want of a better term - were at perpetual war with the general population be it through the barrel of a gun, the control and manipulation of information, or through the implementation of specific socio-economic policies. Through fear, coercion, intimidation and normalization the desired world for them was a subservient, conformist, dumbed-down, preoccupied one, ripe for exploitation and nothing more.

"Are you serious or are you just trying to make me laugh?" asked Bill Grundy of the Sex Pistols during his infamous television interview with them. It was a good question. Better, actually, than the question on the front page of the Daily Mirror newspaper the next day where it was asked 'Were the Pistols loaded?' So, were the Sex Pistols serious? Not in the same way as Crass but yes, of course they were. Was it not they who were facing the rebuke, the hostility, the condemnation and the physical attacks? At times it must have felt as though the whole world was against them. Why would anyone put themselves through such a thing? Why would anyone put up with such grief if their intent was not serious and their motivation not heartfelt? As Johnny Rotten would later say: "You don't write a song like God Save The Queen because you hate the English race. You write a song like that because you love them and you're fed up with them being mistreated."

For their troubles, the Sex Pistols kick-started a cultural revolution that in turn inspired others to pick up and run with many of the ideas thrown up in the wake. Like, for example, Crass, who in turn had kick-started a social revolution of their own, again inspiring others to pick up and run with many of the ideas thrown up in that wake.

Their heads buzzing with Anarcho politics, drug cocktails, the spirit of free festivals and the freedom in poverty - fermented with a heavy brew of Crass, Pistols, Alternative TV, and yes, Adam And The Ants - the bastard children of Punk Rock surged forth into the world, congregating around squats, housing co-ops, run-down venues and dirty pubs and clubs in all the major inner-cities of Britain and mainland Europe.

Aware that the world was wrong but unsure of how to actually change it, they were instead creating their own worlds by using their sense of freedom to build alternatives to just about everything on offer from the mainstream. Many, of course, seeking solace in drink and drugs to the exclusion of anything else but many others seeking fulfilment in creativity and expressing themselves through music, art, writing and protest.

And above and beyond any other band, capturing and representing the pure essence of these lives now being led was The Mob, whose début album Let The Tribe Increase would resonate deeply with a significant number of this apparently enlightened new breed...