Crucifix - Dehumanization

CRUCIFIX - DEHUMANIZATION

When the propensity for independence was combined with other influences such as American or even Cambodian cultures the results could often be mightily interesting, a case in point being Anarcho Punk band Crucifix, whose début album entitled Dehumanization was released on the Corpus Christi label.

With lead vocals by Cambodian immigrant Sothira Pheng, Crucifix were from California and were proof positive of the global reach of Crass. The music Crucifix produced was adrenalin-pumped, American Hardcore-style Punk mixed with lashings of Discharge that didn't deviate in any way from a full-frontal assault approach. Focussing almost entirely on the subject of war and a desire for world peace, their scope might not have been anything startlingly original for an Anarcho Punk band but the fact that they were full-on, spiky-topped Punk Rockers dressed in black based in sunny California made them uniquely unusual.

In amongst their songs of war and peace there were also references to Sothira Pheng's family history in Cambodia where just a few years earlier Pol Pot's Year Zero program had wrought such horrific devastation. It could almost have been anticipated that at some point Cambodia and Punk Rock would collide as there had always been a slender link between the two. From The Clash referring to Cambodia in I'm So Bored With The USA, to the Dead Kennedys singing about needing a holiday there, to Crass and a proportion of their audience dressed in black rags and black army fatigues looking like they had just stepped straight out of the jungles of Laos.

And who else would be better placed to truly understand the closing line of Crass's Bloody Revolutions - “the truth of revolution, brother, is Year Zero” - than a Cambodian?

Crucifix were a strange flower, born from fragile seeds blown on breezes from different corners of the world. The strange fruit they bore was their album, Dehumanization, that whilst not being to everyone's taste was still an enticing concoction that stood as an example of multi-cultural cross-pollination, genetically enhanced by fine and noble moral and political ethics.

The Thatchergate Tapes

THE THATCHERGATE TAPES

There are, of course, a multitude of ways to “hit back” as Conflict had put it and Crass more than most were pretty adept at it. Behind their public persona they had always been busy beavering away at various illicit activities that by some might have been called seditionary, and in January of 1984 they were exposed by The Observer newspaper for one such activity.

A tape had turned up in America of what was purportedly a crossed-line telephone conversation between Thatcher and Reagan discussing the sinking of The Belgrano and The Sheffield in the Falklands war, along with the plan to sacrifice Europe in the event of a nuclear war. The tape had fallen into the hands of the US State Department who whilst declaring it to be fake were attributing its production to the KGB. According to the Sunday Times newspaper who had also picked up on the story, it was 'evidence of an increasingly sophisticated Russian disinformation campaign'.

For some unexplained reason the Observer newspaper came knocking at Crass's door asking if they knew anything about it and after an initial denial Crass held up their hands and admitted that yes, the tape had been made by them.

The world's media picked up on the story and suddenly everyone wanted to interview these Punk Rockers from England who had fooled the CIA. Expecting in all likelihood a bunch of stereotypical, spotty Sid Vicious types, what they got instead was articulate, self-styled anarchists able to discuss at length the issues that had been raised in the tape.

Crass had hit back by producing what was essentially an amateur, home-made cassette tape of Thatcher and Reagan talking; cut up and rearranged to produce a made-up telephone conversation. They were then given the opportunity to hit back even harder by engaging with news organisations in America, Europe and Japan, and getting subjects into the public domain that hitherto had hardly been given a mention. For years Crass had shunned the mainstream music press and declined interviews with the various music papers but when it came to being able to talk to other mainstream media organisations about things other than music they readily took up the offers.

These were pre-Internet days and at that time music was an incredibly powerful medium for communication and one of the very few forms that could be in the control of those actually producing it. Retaining control of music and the various cultures from which it sprang meant autonomy and freedom of expression, something the Anarcho groups seemed to understand more than most, hence their jealous protection of it. As Flux Of Pink Indians had put it: “Punk belongs to the Punks not the business men. They need us, we don't need them. Punk will never be dead as long as some of us refuse to be led.”

Conflict also understood how precious it was as expressed in a short essay on the back cover of The Serenade Is Dead: 'Punk is not a business, it meant and still means an alternative to all the shit tradition that gets thrown at us. A way of saying 'No' to all the false morals that oppress us. It was and still is the only serious threat to the status quo of the music business. Punk is about making your own rules and doing your own thing. Not about making some pimp shop owner rich.

Punk is still our movement, we can put right was is wrong by learning to say 'No, we're right, you're wrong'. Fuck their fucking future it means oppression, war and hate. It's time to change the tables around and recreate the State.'

For anyone wanting to change the world, communication was key but it wasn't just a matter of what was said that was important but how it was said. Revolutionary and radical ideas in lyrics were all well and good but no matter how well-intentioned the protagonist might be, if those ideas were being delivered via a major record company then the bottom line was that those ideas were products and the sole point of them being sold by that company was to turn a profit.

“CBS promote The Clash but it ain't for revolution it's just for cash,” as Crass had put it. The Clash's reason for signing to CBS, according to Joe Strummer, was due to wanting as many people as possible to be able to hear them which was understandable but did this mean integrity counted for nothing? Did integrity have to be the first thing jettisoned in that bid to be heard?

“Punk died the day The Clash signed to CBS,” said Mark Perry and he was right. The Clash had been in such a good position in their early days that potentially they could have broken the back of the corporate music business had they chosen to remain independent of it. They could have if they had so wished sold their records from backs of lorries, according to Mark Perry again, and their fans would have lapped them up.

More realistically, rather than from backs of lorries there were enough small record shops opening up at that time to make the need for help from a major label to sell records redundant. Four years later in their song Hitsville UK from their Sandanista album, The Clash would sing the praises of the various independent labels (Small Wonder – the first home of Crass and Poison Girls, of course – being one of them) but by then it was too late.

If only The Clash had remained independent, what an escalation in the Punk wars it would have caused! Their début album would still have been made but it would have been far more profound, like a Feeding Of The 5000 for the '77 generation. Give 'Em Enough Rope would have been far different and far better, and as for London Calling who could possibly imagine how it might have been? 

If only, if only...

If it's true that like calls to like and threats are replicated by examples then the influence of The Clash was entirely predictable. They would encourage bands to form but then those bands would simply follow The Clash's lead and try to get signed-up by a major record label, subsequently jettisoning their independence and ensuring the cycle remained unbroken.

The influence of a band like Crass on the other hand was entirely unpredictable simply by them encouraging independence, which obviously opened up the potential for all kinds of independent thought and action.

Or that was the theory, at least...

Conflict - The Serenade Is Dead

CONFLICT - THE SERENADE IS DEAD

Having already released the Icons Of Filth demo tape on their Mortarhate label, Conflict's first venture into releasing vinyl was a 7” record from themselves entitled The Serenade Is Dead. Conflict had always been viewed as a good band and were always a ferocious proposition when playing live but nobody could have foreseen the sheer power of their début record on their own label.

Combining the best of The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, Crass and themselves, The Serenade Is Dead was like a flower in full bloom. Underpinned by a rumbling bass line, its level of production gave it a thickness and weight that had often been missing from other Anarcho Punk releases, raising what was already a fully realised combination of the personal and the political into a freeform Punk ballad of epic proportions.

To the pounding of drums and a storm of guitars, Colin Jerwood went from describing love forlorn to contemplating god, the system, the threat of war, regret, and the need for unity; arriving at a summary of the state of the Anarcho Punk movement: “The system still stands strong as our movement starts to crumble, the pressure we once held has just turned to a rumble. They've got us where they want us and we all accept that, well don't you think it's time we started to HIT BACK? They ARE the enemy, they want a rope around your neck and if they will go that far then what the fuck is next?”

There are occasions in time when it is the perfectly right conditions and the perfectly right moment to take an action, ask a question or to make a statement; occasions when any of these things will have the most impact. For Conflict, such an occasion was at the start of 1984 when George Orwell's prophetic new year lay ahead and all the very real political problems and objectives of the day were clearly in view.

The forces of the conservative Right were on the march and it was they who were calling the shots. It was they who were on the attack and it was they who were out to quash all their ideological enemies. Something needed to be done to halt the drift towards their world view being fully realised and it was plain to see at that point that peaceful protest was insufficient.

For Conflict – one of the most prominent of Anarcho Punk bands – to ask whether it was “time we started to hit back” was exactly the right thing to do and the fact that their question was being delivered over one of the most powerful and accessible Anarcho Punk Rock compositions to date made it all the more effective and all the more potent.

The Serenade Is Dead was the signal that Anarcho Punk was about to turn more militant. Pacifism had been tried and tested but was now no longer going to be used as a convenient excuse for not moving things forward. From peaceful protest there would now be a lot more active resistance and Conflict would be the prime cheerleaders for it.

'Together we can turn the impossible dream into reality' they declared, and like Crass they sounded mightily convincing. Conflict were proletarian exponents of that impossible dream. Proletarian exponents of an alternative culture that up against the cruel hardness of Thatcherism and the predicted gloom of 1984 were offering much needed energy, enthusiasm, positivity – and hope.

1984

Welcome to 1984

George Orwell was 46 years old when he wrote 1984 and passed away six months after its publication so never witnessed the cultural impact the book would have. His vision of the future as depicted in his novel was both logical and plausible, and if nothing else served as a warning of what could so easily be in regard to the dangers of totalitarianism, surveillance and the distortion of language.

'If you want a vision of the future,' Orwell wrote 'then imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.'

But oh, to be content with that vision! Particularly if the boot was a soft, velvety one rather than steel toe-capped. If only everyone could be content in being ruled by an iron fist, watched over by CCTV and fed a constant diet of bullshit? To be content with eating at McDonalds, watching mindless television game shows and reading The Sun? What a wonderful world it might be?

Gladly, however, there were still some people who wanted more than “the shit they get, the shit they get, the shit they get.” Gladly, there were still some people who wanted something other that they could call their own which wasn't “a Ford Cortina or a mortgage on a home.”

In California Uber Alles, Dead Kennedys vocalist Jello Biafra had welcomed his listeners to 1984 by asking them if they were ready for the Third World War? In 1977 on the B-side of White Riot by The Clash, Joe Strummer had counted down the years and on reaching 1984 had let out a loud gasp. Crass, on the other hand, had counted down to it by cataloguing each release on their label with numbers indicating how many years it was before 1984.

Orwell had created a sense of foreboding around his chosen year that had entered all aspects of culture, Punk being no exception. Many of his terms and slogans from the book had also entered into common language whilst his principle predictions remained standing as warning signs of unparalleled bleakness, forever struggling with the power of Newspeak whereby coercion into that bleakness was presented as free choice and that bleakness even presented as sunshine.

'If there is hope, it lies in the proles,' Orwell had wrote and indeed this had always been the case and would forever remain so but might hope also lay somewhere else too? In the creation of alternative cultures, perhaps? Freethinking, anarchist-based cultures where the participation and input of proletariats was a prerequisite?

Punk had offered hope but its initial vanguard had quickly been bought out and the creativity and destruction it had engendered had been recuperated. From out of the wreckage Crass had emerged, offering fresh hope to a jilted generation and spawning additional hope in the form of Anarcho Punk but now it was 1984 was this still the case? Did Anarcho Punk still have anything to offer apart from Punk Rock? If Stop The City was anything to go by then the answer was a most definite 'Yes' but was Anarcho Punk enough? Could the momentum of the Anarcho Punk movement be maintained? Could it be advanced?

Crass may have started to have their doubts but if Conflict had anything to do with it then the answer again was a most definite 'Yes'...

MDC - Multi-Death Corporations

MDC – MULTI-DEATH CORPORATIONS

Just in time to finish off 1983 with a glimmer of light at the end of an ever-darkening tunnel, one last great record was released on the Crass label. Multi-Death Corporations by MDC was a 4-track EP that had originally been released in America on the band's own R Radical label.

Based in San Francisco, MDC were leading members of the burgeoning American Hardcore Punk scene who had already produced a classic 7” single (under their original name of the Stains) called John Wayne Was A Nazi, released a seminal début album entitled Millions Of Dead Cops, toured the length and breadth of America, and played support to the Dead Kennedys on their first tour of Europe.

Taking it easy they were not.

The Multi-Death Corporations EP came wrapped in a typical Crass-style, black and white, fold out sleeve; the difference between this one and all the others, however, being in how graphic the writing was, particularly in the descriptions of the torture and atrocities committed in El Salvador by US-sponsored and trained government troops. And rather than any Gee Vaucher-style photomontage art on the poster side of the sleeve there was instead a large, graphic and repulsive photograph of two dead victims of those same troops, their faces hideously burnt away by acid.

Ronald Reagan had a lot to answer for.

Musically, MDC were an uncompromising aural assault upon the listener, sounding like a large box of metal objects and broken glass being shaken furiously by an angry person that even to ears accustomed to Disorder took some getting used to.

Lyrically, vocalist Dave Dictor shouted out words at a relentless pace, raining criticism down on multinational corporations, selfish shits, the profit motive, and the rich. In amongst his torrent of words one particular line stood out: “Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the rest of you”.

This particular phrase had originally been used by Martin Luther King Jr in the late Sixties to describe how the rich were being protected by government policies and economic subsidies whilst the poor were basically being left to fend for themselves in an increasingly dog-eat-dog world.

By raising this same idea, Dave Dictor was hitting the nail on the head in regards to Reagonomics in America and Thatcherism in the UK. It was there for all to see, not even bothering to hide in plain sight. Tax cuts for the rich and for big business, for example, were immediately and so blatantly for their benefit alone though presented as if they would also be of benefit to the poor. Anti-union legislation as another example was clearly for the benefit of the bosses with nothing to be gained from it by the actual workers, though again it was presented as if it was for the benefit of the country.

On both sides of the Atlantic, governments were telling their respective populations that black is white and white is black. That censorship is national security, armies are peace-keeping forces, and civilian deaths are collateral damage. That war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength. Examples, of course, of Newspeak, the language used in George Orwell's novel 1984 by a future totalitarian State to limit free thought.

The future, however, had arrived.

The future was now.

The year 1984 was here...

The Harrods Bombing

THE HARRODS BOMBING

Not content with a conventional war in the Falklands and an impending nuclear world war, Thatcher was now declaring war on trade unions; using the power of government and the courts to cripple them legally and financially and then using the police to crush them physically. And just to round things off there was still the matter of the war in Northern Ireland.

“It's all very simple while you keep the war vocal,” as Crass had declared a few years earlier “But the bombs in Belfast are coming down your local. I want to know how much you can take cos you've taken it all, and that's just great.”

Rather than gaining them the freedom for their country that they sought or at least a place at the negotiating table, the IRA's war against the British State was only leading to being responded to in kind. Not that this specific war was one that Thatcher was willing to name as such.

Conventional war, nuclear war, State violence, State control; the capacity for the government to continue inflicting problems and misery seemed to hold no bounds as did the capacity for people to carry on regardless under whatever circumstances. These were problems for the IRA that they were continuously trying to break.

On December 10^th 1983, a bomb planted by the IRA went off at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, London, injuring four soldiers and a passerby. Two weeks later another bomb went off outside Harrods, in London, killing three police officers, three members of the public and injuring many more. An apology was quickly issued by the IRA over the loss of innocent lives in the explosion; that is, for the deaths of the three members of the public, not the police officers though of course, the apology counted for nothing.

It begged the question, however: If the Angry Brigade had managed to plant bombs without causing any loss of life then why couldn't the supposedly more professional IRA?

On visiting the injured in hospital, the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Graham Leonard spoke of the “intensity of evil” of those responsible for the bomb, adding “The real agony is that there are actually human beings who can do this.”

Which also begged another question: What might the Bishop think of Thatcher and co, and their willingness to see millions upon millions of dead and injured from an even bigger bomb?

Warrington

THE WARRINGTON DISPUTE

Away from Greenham Common, something altogether different was taking place that was still extremely significant to the way the country was being governed and would prove to have huge repercussions for British workers for evermore. An industrial dispute at a print works in Warrington, near Manchester, had escalated into a state of affairs that no-one – except perhaps Thatcher – could have anticipated after a newspaper entrepreneur called Eddie Shah took on printers union the National Graphical Association (NGA) over the issues of closed shops and the employment of non-union labour.

Less than a fortnight after being elected to government in 1979, Thatcher had started to lay out plans for trade union reform; focussing on picketing, the closed shop and ballots. Her aim was to not just curb but destroy the power of unions and in a bid to do this had devised a raft of new laws and two new Employment Acts.

In Warrington, Eddie Shah had recruited non-union labour for his new printing plant causing NGA members to stage a walkout. Shah sacked the strikers immediately which led to a bout of mass picketing at the plant in support of them. Hundreds of union members were bussed in to take part in the pickets which prompted Shah to cite the new Tory Employment Acts, and to call upon the government for support.

Thatcher was only too pleased to oblige and gave the police the green light to do whatever it took to prevent the pickets having any effect. To Thatcher, not only was this a case of law and order and the pickets acting illegally but also a question of a greater struggle between union and government power.

The NGA was fined huge sums for breaking the rules of the new Employment Acts and finally had their entire funds sequestered for non-compliance. As for the pickets themselves, they were facing a newly equipped, combative police force, trained in the lessons of the riots of '81 and given the go-ahead from the highest level of government to act with impunity.

The strike culminated with the exits of the M6 motorway being blocked by the police to prevent the pickets getting to Warrington and then finally with a full-on battle between the two sides outside the plant where 2,000 baton-wielding police charged, drove at in Range Rovers and fought hand-to-hand with 4,000 workers.

Nobody knew at the time, of course, but this was the shape of things to come in terms of policing future industrial disputes...

Greenham Common - Reflect the Base

GREENHAM COMMON –

REFLECT THE BASE

Keeping good on the promise of opening up a new round of demonstrations and actions following the deployment of Cruise missiles, 50,000 women descended upon Greenham Common in the first week of December to take part in a 'Reflect the Base' protest. Encircling the entire base, the women held mirrors up to the police and soldiers behind the fence to reflect their images back to them.

As a peaceful protest it was another inspired idea that also created the space and the opportunity for the slightly more militant to pull down whole sections of the fence. Hundreds of arrests were made and many fingers broken by soldiers lashing out at hands with metal bars but no-one was shot, subsequently making a perfect mockery of Heseltine's idle threats.

Icons Of Filth - Used, Abused, Unamused

ICONS OF FILTH –

USED, ABUSED, UNAMUSED

And then from the Corpus Christi label came Used, Abused, Unamused, a 4-track 7” EP by Icons Of Filth. Based in Cardiff, Wales, they had first started out as friends just following Crass around the country on their tours whereupon they had encountered fellow Crass fans Conflict and Omega Tribe. Inspired by Crass, they had formed themselves into an Anarcho Punk band whose first cassette-only release entitled Not On Her Majesty's Service was put out by Conflict's very own fledgling label, Mortarhate. Following healthy sales of the tape, Corpus Christi offered to release their début single.

Over taut, frenetic and wired hardcore Punk Rock played at breakneck speed, hoarse-voiced lead singer Stig delivered impassioned observations on the system, religion, indoctrination and war. Tried and tested Anarcho Punk subjects one and all but in the hands of Stig, a clearly intelligent thoughtfulness was being applied to each: “Fear is the maintainer of this living death called system... Voting concedes incapability to run your own life. Well, how would you know if you ain't ever tried? Used, abused, unamused? Yeah, every day... God is a measure of our insecurity. We want life after death. We're so afraid that we may be alone, and the responsibility of past, present and future lies with us alone... People always die, we all die in the end and as sure as this is to be expected, we see war as natural.”

In addition to the obvious thought behind the lyrics, what was of particular interest about the record was the artwork adorning the Crass-style fold-out sleeve. Drawn by one Squealing Niallee Wheelee, the style and subject matter was reminiscent of Nick Blinco's; being very detailed pen and ink drawings of skeletal figures and human skulls though it was distinctive enough in its own right that it would be an influence upon and be emulated by other Punk artists for years to come.

Amebix - No Sanctuary

AMEBIX – NO SANCTUARY

From the Spiderleg label came a 7 track, 12” EP by Amebix entitled No Sanctuary, that in a way was far more suited to the general mood of the time due to it being very dark and bleak. With this record Amebix were finally discovering and revealing their own unique sound and in hindsight were actually on their way to creating a whole new musical genre, combining Punk and Heavy Metal to create Crust – a slow but very powerful and heavy form of Punk Rock plumbing sub-Black Sabbath areas of gloom, outrage and horror.

Like a tortured and distorted Discharge on bad drugs, Amebix were emitting an almighty howl of rage from the innermost core of their beings; racked with pain and sick with the state of the world: “And in our ignorance we let them take control, and in their wisdom they decreed that we should bow. When we put our lives into their hands, we put our hands into their chains,” from the track Control, and “They lead you to your slaughter like they lead a horse to water. They can't force you to drink – but you do,” from the track Progress.

Not that Amebix were without humour, however, as shown in such lines as “Roses are red, sometimes violets are blue but we're always puking on cider and glue,” from the track Sunshine Ward. Interestingly, their sense of humour was reminiscent of Disorder's as in “Vomiting green- haired Punks standing on the dole. No money, no clothes, no place left to go,” from Today's World on the Complete Disorder EP. This made sense, however, due to Amebix and Disorder sharing the same squats (and the same drugs) in Bristol.

Disorder were by this time well on their way to being an influence upon squat Punk bands throughout the world whilst Amebix's time was still to come though their influence would eventually turn out to be far greater.

Naked - One Step Forward Towards Reality

NAKED –

ONE STEP FORWARD TOWARDS REALITY

The arrival of Cruise missiles cast a shadow over everything that month, even the release of Anarcho Punk records from some of the best record labels in the land. From the Bluurg label came a 7” EP by Naked called One Step Forward Towards Reality. Naked had first appeared on Bullshit Detector 2 with an Omega Tribe-type Pop Punk song called Mid 1930s Pre-War Germany, that in its own right was another classic of its time, echoing Dancing by Zounds but far more upbeat. On hearing it, a lot of people wanted to know what else Naked had in their repertoire but when it came to their début release on Bluurg, though very melodic it was something of a disappointment due entirely to the poor lyrics.

The arrival of Cruise

THE ARRIVAL OF CRUISE

There was no doubt at all that Mark Mob didn't mean every word he sang and every sentiment he expressed in his songs, and just like everyone else with an iota of awareness was totally dismayed at the way the world was going. Mark's anxiety could only have been ratcheted up another notch when Michael Heseltine announced that any protester caught within the boundary of Greenham Common missile base ran the risk of being shot.

As it was mostly American troops deployed there it obviously meant that British citizens on British soil would be shot dead by agents of a foreign power. And this was meant to be deemed as being acceptable. For his troubles, a short time later when attending Manchester University to address a meeting of Conservative students, to shouts of “Better red than dead!”, Heseltine was sprayed with red paint and pelted with eggs by anti-nuclear weapons protesters.

When Heseltine condemned the attack as being 'undemocratic', as to be expected by that time his condemnation was supported by the CND leadership. Threatening to shoot dead peaceful protesters was acceptable it seemed but not so taking direct action against the perpetrator of that threat.

The atomic bomb might well have been less culturally relevant than the poems of Charles Baudelaire but it was still without question of huge social relevance even to Penny Rimbaud, so when the first Cruise missiles started arriving at Greenham Common on November 14 of 1983, the impact was emotional, to say the least.

Tears were shed and anger was vented in abundance. Outside the House of Commons over 300 mainly women peace protesters were arrested for trying to block the entrance with a lie-down protest, whilst at Greenham another 150 women were arrested after conducting a sit-down protest outside the main gates.

Had it always been a fanciful and naive notion to believe that the deployment of Cruise could be halted? Cynics would have said 'Yes' but then they would also have chosen to remain cynically silent about the whole issue and of course, that silence would always be taken as a sign of consent.

If the anti-nuclear protesters had been even greater in number would they have succeeded in their aims? As there never seemed to be any tipping point in sight it was unlikely. If the anti-nuclear protesters had been more militant would they have been more successful? Possibly.

If all the marchers traipsing off to Hyde Park or Trafalgar Square had stopped off in Whitehall and started rioting or had made their way to the City and brought it to a grinding halt, for example, what might have happened? Whilst potentially giving ammunition to the pro-nuclear brigade both in the government and in the Right-wing press, it would certainly have made Thatcher's (and also Kinnock's) position more difficult and it may also have led to a Constitutional crisis.

Such thoughts, however, were purely hypothetical because rather than rioting or stopping the City, protesters had chosen instead to remain within the law, penned in on marches by police and CND stewards. Contained.

The government had refused to listen and for all the marching and non-violent direct action, Cruise missiles were now in Britain with the only thing to raise the spirits being the promise from anti-war groups that the deployment would open up a whole new round of demonstrations and actions.

The Mob - The Mirror Breaks

THE MOB – THE MIRROR BREAKS

In a more calmer and reflective moment, Penny Rimbaud would remark that the poems of Charles Baudelaire were infinitely more culturally relevant than the atomic bomb, which if true could have just as easily been said about the songs of The Mob. Whilst grounded in the despair of 1980s Britain, their Let The Tribe Increase album had transcended all external forces of fear and repression to shine a light upon a profound sense of virtue. Their follow-up 7” single entitled The Mirror Breaks, released in the Autumn of 1983, acted as a final confirmation of this and sealed their reputation as being a band in possession of a rare poignancy.

Containing all the essential elements of a typical Mob composition – the driving bass, rudimentary guitar, neat drumming, soaring backing vocals and even the tremble in Mark Mob's baritone – there was a melodic lightness of touch to The Mirror Breaks that whether intentional or not made them of even greater appeal than they already were.

The Mob were in the enviable position of being unable to do no wrong and in what was essentially another state of the nation address this latest release not only fulfilled all expectations but surpassed them also, encapsulating all that was good about their album and boiling it down into just under four minutes of sheer beauty.

Opening with an admission of living a life of fear and an acknowledgement of there being very little to be done when facing the overwhelming power of those who rule the earth, Mark Mob was still taking a stand, insisting that his understanding of the way things were was a correct one: “You may think I don't know anything, you may think I've got it wrong but I know what it means when I hear the hangman whistling his song.”

Ranged against “the knives they keep in Whitehall,” Mark sees “hope and fragile love” as the only weapons available to fight back with and once again places his faith in children and that one day when the world is theirs they might use it well. As for their elders, he wishes them all the best but hopes that they “burn in hell”.

His final observation is in regard to himself where he faces the fact that ultimately he is alone, emphasised when the mirror breaks and he is nothing more than a drowning man without even a reflection.

With the release of The Mirror Breaks, The Mob were on their way to greater things. Though still loyal to the squat/DIY circuit, they were at the point of being easily capable of filling more mainstream major venues as well, particularly within London. With this in mind it was strange to say the least that this was the moment when Mark Mob decided to load up his truck and go off travelling with the Peace Convoy, effectively causing The Mob to vanish in the sunlight never to be heard of again (apart from posthumous re-releases) until almost 30 years later.

It may well be better to burn out than it is to rust but for many this was a sad day. The Mob would be missed but the memory of them as being one of the best Anarcho Punk bands and one of the most special groups of the 1980s would always remain.

Grenada invasion

GRENADA INVASION

In a speech delivered to a Christian fundamentalist organisation in America earlier in the year, President Reagan had described Russia as “the focus of evil in the modern world” and called for his audience to “pray for those who live in that totalitarian darkness, pray they will discover the joy of knowing God”. There was no reason to believe that Reagan was just playing to the gallery and telling the congregation what they wanted to hear because after all, he was merely a mouthpiece for his political masters and every speech he made – or rather, had written for him – would have always been sanctioned by his Administration so as not to stray from or contradict official policy.

So essentially, the government of the United States of America was defining Russia as an empire of evil that only through God and a position of military strength would be defeated. God and guns, in other words. Was it any wonder that people viewed America with suspicion, fear and loathing when such sentiments were aired? This was with whom Britain apparently had a 'special relationship' with. The same backwards-looking, bible bashing, gung-ho Administration that was being allowed to site first-strike Cruise nuclear missiles throughout Europe.

Thatcher wasn't oblivious to the anti-American mood even though she was unsettlingly close to Reagan but just three days after the Hyde Park CND rally an event took place on the other side of the world that tested even her own blind trust in him.

The island of Grenada in the Caribbean was a member of the British Commonwealth, meaning that the Queen of England was its Head of State. Since 1979 it had been under the rule of a socialist government who was close allies of Cuba. Even though Cuba along with Nicaragua and of course Russia was considered by America to be an 'enemy of freedom', Grenada itself had never caused any great concern. That all changed, however, on October 19 when Grenada's Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop, was ousted and the governance of the island taken over by a more hardline Marxist group.

Following a flurry of diplomatic activity in London, it was concluded that the coup was an internal affair and that no action should be taken by Britain apart from keeping an eye on the safety of the British nationals who lived there. Thatcher herself could distinguish that there was no comparison with the Falklands and that there was no cause to intervene. America conveyed the same line and let it be known that all it would do is to have a ship on standby in case its own nationals at any point needed to be evacuated.

And that, apparently, was the end of it until Thatcher woke up on the morning of October 25 to the news that without any consultation with Britain, America had launched an invasion of the island. Thatcher was reportedly livid, viewing such an action as not only a flagrant violation of international law but as a betrayal of trust between herself and Reagan.

Only a day earlier, the British Foreign Secretary, Geoffrey Howe, had informed the House of Commons that America had reassured his government that there was no intention to intervene in any way. America, it seemed, had lied and had now invaded a British Commonwealth country resulting in almost 100 deaths, over 500 wounded, and untold political damage.

How could Thatcher now tell the British public that America could be trusted, particularly over the issue of Cruise? How could she now argue this with CND? It was undeniable: There had been no cause for Grenada to be invaded. Thatcher knew it as did everyone else but in a television address that would have been high comedy if it hadn't been so scary, Reagan justified the invasion thus:

“Grenada, we were told, was a friendly isolated paradise for tourism. Well, it wasn't. It was a Soviet/Cuban colony being readied as a major bastion to export terror and undermine democracy. We got there just in time.”

At the same time of the invasion, in a leaked government report to the Guardian newspaper it was revealed that the first of the Cruise missiles were due to arrive at Greenham Common in just over three weeks time...

CND - Hyde Park '83

CND - HYDE PARK '83

October 1983 saw CND's much vaunted national demonstration take place in London coinciding with other similar-sized demonstrations in West Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and France. 'Oct 22 Where will you be?' asked all the many CND posters distributed and published in newspapers and magazines throughout the land. Come the day, over 250,000 people answered by turning up for the start of the march at Victoria Embankment from where they would wend their way to the mass rally in Hyde Park.

There was no denying, it was an impressive turnout that sent a clear message to the Thatcher government. Not that they were ever going to listen, of course, but if nothing else it must have taken them by surprise to actually see the sheer amount of support that CND had garnered. If only those same numbers had turned up for Stop The City?

For the more clear-sighted, however, it wasn't so much about communicating any message to those in power but more about communicating with each other. Those out marching that day were communicating to the people next to them, letting them as well as themselves know that they weren't alone.

Peace and a world free from nuclear weapons wasn't some strange, naïve notion but something that thousands upon thousands of people from all walks of life both believed in and sought. The problem being that the communicating and the dialogue needed to be extended and moved up a gear because however loud the plea for peace was, it was falling on deaf ears and for all the marching, it was getting nowhere.

As the protesters poured into Hyde Park, the focal point was the stage from where various members of the CND leadership spoke, all giving each other a mutual pat on the back for the huge and successful turnout. The overriding message was that the nuclear madness had to end but there was no evidence the leaders of the Western world or their counterparts in the East would ever be swayed no matter how many people CND might gather under their banner. Whether it be 250,000 or 500,000 people marching on the streets, there was no tipping point in sight.

On that day it became apparent that the solution lay not in talking to politicians and leaders but in talking to each other; to family, to neighbours, to the people marching next to you. Power lay sideways not upwards. Change would come horizontally not vertically.

The keynote speaker at the rally should really have been the Hiroshima survivor who was there in attendance but was instead newly elected Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, whose proffered solution to the siting of Cruise missiles and the end of the arms race was the voting in of a Labour government. Put your faith in him as elected leader, he advised, and nuclear armageddon would be thwarted.

The very idea was not only preposterous but insulting and the gathered Punks and anarchists at the front of the stage – many of whom had been at Stop The City – let Kinnock know it by pelting him with clumps of mud, sticks, bottles and cans. Teams of police and CND stewards rushed forward to protect Kinnock from the missile throwers, resulting in a near-pitched battle between the two sides.

The missile throwers were predictably condemned by many of the peaceniks for attacking Kinnock though it wouldn't be too long before Kinnock not only stopped being a signed-up CND member but also changing his stance on nuclear weapons from outright ban to 'negotiated reductions', therefore proving the missile throwers perfectly correct in their appraisal of him and their hostility perfectly justified.

As first indicated by The Apostles on their Blow It Up, Burn It Down' EP earlier in the year and then evidenced at Stop The City, something was stirring in the Punk ranks, underlined on that day at Hyde Park not only by the bottling of Neil Kinnock but also by a fanzine-styled newspaper being sold there entitled Class War; its front cover depicting a field of crosses, emblazoned with the headline: 'We have found new homes for the rich.'....

Cecil, Cecil, Cecil...

CECIL, CECIL, CECIL...

Wondering if something altogether very different had been worth it was Conservative government minister Cecil Parkinson, who after details were released to the press of his extramarital affair with his secretary and a subsequent unwanted pregnancy, was forced to reluctantly resign from office.

Parkinson had somewhat inexplicably been a member of Thatcher's select War Cabinet during the Falklands crisis and had been the architect of the Conservatives' election campaign earlier in the year. Viewed by some as having 'matinee idol looks' and for some reason a firm favourite of Thatcher, at heart he was little more than a bounder and a cad. And a right fucking bastard.

Parkinson chose to scorn his secretary lover and their unborn child and stick instead with his wife, supported in his decision by Thatcher who had suddenly forgotten all about her Victorian values. His lover, however, was not going to be so casually denied and launched a scathing attack upon Parkinson, telling of his promises to marry her which in the end caused his ministerial position to be untenable. From that day on he chose not to take the slightest interest in the child, not once even casting his eyes upon her.

Cecil Parkinson was a prime example of Tory hypocrisy whose Lotharion antics would always hang over him, leading even to a whole new chant made on marches and demonstrations: “Maggie, Maggie, Maggie! Out, out out! Cecil, Cecil, Cecil! In, in, in! Cecil – out! Cecil – in! Cecil, Cecil, Cecil! In out, in out, in out, in out, in out...”

Well, on a wet Saturday afternoon trudging through the streets of London on another protest march it seemed amusing, at least.

Subhumans - Time Flies... But Aeroplanes Crash

SUBHUMANS -

TIME FLIES... BUT AEROPLANES CRASH

Over in Wiltshire, the Subhumans were showing no sign of a let up in their productivity with the release of yet another record from them on their Bluurg label. Time Flies... But Aeroplanes Crash was a 12” EP containing a mixture of live and studio-recorded songs that if truth be told was a bit of a hotchpotch.

Playing live was where the Subhumans were still on their peak form so it was understandable that they'd wish to capture that on vinyl. The original aim of Time Flies was that it be a totally live recording but when it came to it, the intended recording of the concert wasn’t very good so they instead entered the studio and bashed out newer versions of some songs from their guitarist's first band – Stupid Humans – to use alongside a few of the live songs they managed to salvage. The end result, however, wasn't quite as good as they might have hoped and out of the eight songs just three stood out.

The obvious first stand-out track was Susan, in which Dick recited a tale of domestic depression over the sound of a piano, an instrument not ever associated before with the Subhumans.

The second track was Work, Rest, Play, Die; a catchy sing-along that chewed over the subject of conformity, sung almost as though it was an advertising jingle.

The stand-out track, however, was People Are Scared, which contained what was possibly Dick Lucas' most keenly observed and insightful lyrics to that date:

“Nobody says anything on buses, it's not the noise the engine makes. You can watch them all staring nervous, sit at the back, it's the safest place. People are scared to say 'hello', the flick of the fag, the shifting eyes. Stare in amusement then look away, the conscious battle of who to despise. Self-restriction and paranoia, self-belief and the silent laugh. The inner conflict between one and other, when you're all the same it seems so daft.”

Half-spoken, half-screamed, the words are delivered over an almost Jefferson Airplane-style rock piece, Punkified yet shorn of any typical Subhumans thrash.

What was it about situations such as being on a bus or on a tube train that caused people to put up defensive walls of silence? Was it due to being in a confined space with strangers, or that it was simply dead time to get over with as quickly and as hassle-free as possible whilst journeying from one place to another?

Was it but a question of appropriateness and etiquette? Why was it okay to talk to strangers in some situations and places but not in others? In confined spaces, were people afraid for their personal safety and for this reason were suspicious of others' motives? In some cases, yes, but clearly not in all.

Were people wary of talking to strangers on a bus through fear of being judged or misjudged by them? Or was it a case of it actually always being like this and in a confined space it being simply magnified and laid bare? If so, then it was arguably to everyone's detriment but might it also be to anyone's or anything's advantage?

“People are scared underneath their silence. People are getting more afraid. They turn to their leaders for help and guidance and then the system wins again and will carry on winning til god knows when. Til people start to talk to each other, everyone just like a brother. Til the morals and fear that divides us all are no longer the excuse for the system's rule.”

The Subhumans and Dick Lucas with his lyrics in particular were touching upon something of huge significance but did they even realise it? If so, then why the decision to release what was one of their best songs only as a live version tucked away amongst seven other songs on what appeared to be a hastily-produced, almost throwaway mini-album?

People Are Scared was an anomaly but then Time Flies was a record full of anomalies, ending up as it was more through accident rather than design. It wasn't the best thing that Subhumans had released by any means but for the inclusion of nothing other than People Are Scared, it was worth it.