Omega Tribe - No Love Lost

OMEGA TRIBE - NO LOVE LOST

Of course, being good musicians is not without some value, a case in point being Omega Tribe whose début album No Love Lost was a veritable Pop/Punk explosion, sounding like a bastard love child of early The Jam and Crass. Released on the Corpus Christi label, the album's cover was a curiously simple black and white drawing of a sea of hands grabbing at butterflys fluttering overhead that gave no hint of the musical contents within.

Omega Tribe had all the credentials to be a perfect Anarcho Punk band. They were thoughtful, generous, naturally anarchist and that summer of '83 had even been one of the headlining bands at the Stonehenge festival. Guitarist Pete Fender was also the son of Vi Subversa and they were good friends of both Crass and Conflict. Whilst being very capable of thrashing it up with the best of them, Omega Tribe's unique contribution to the party was their pop sensibility and an ear for a good melody as evidenced on the opening track of the album, Duty Calls.

Starting with a simple drum beat and a rather more intricate bass line, a vocal harmony of the kind not heard since when the Buzzcocks or the Undertones were at their best immediately elevated the song to a grander height where dual guitars careered around and teased each other like stunt kites zig-zagging in the sky.

Omega Tribe had a message to impart and were trying to do so to the best of their abilities. That message being that the world didn't have to be the way it was, that it could be far different and much, much better. Duty Calls was almost an inversion of Crass's Do They Owe Us A Living, where instead of Steve Ignorant arguing for the living that is owed to him, it is 'they' or in other words 'the system' that was demanding recompense for what it has given: "We've given you your whole life, your mortgage, car and wealth, we gave you lots of make-up to cover your real self. We gave you a loving husband, made you a passive whore, and now we think it's right for you to fight our futile war."

Omega Tribe's response might well have been predictable but not so in the way it was delivered: "System! System! We're not your pretty boys. System! System! We're not your little toys," sung with female vocals, and "System! System! We're not your pretty girls. System! System! We're not your little pearls," sung with male vocals.

Omega Tribe were refusing to accept their given lot in life and declining all that was on offer to them in terms of role play, consumerism, education and work. They were rejecting what Crass had called "the corporation deal" that had long ago been brokered and to which they were now meant to abide. Omega Tribe were saying 'No!': "Total war, it's in our minds, reject their dirty power."

Reiterating the fact that profit and greed are motivating forces behind all those in power, a re-recorded version of the track Profiteer, from the Angry Songs EP takes over the strings to fly the stunt kite guitars ever higher before gliding into a calmer jet stream in the form of the track Aftermath: "You can't do anything new, you've left it much too late. Now there's only earth and sea." Painting an end of the world scenario, the point being made in the song is that after nuclear war there are no winners. We all lose.

With guitars sounding as though they'd been plundered from the Siouxsie And The Banshees début album but with vocals of the Steve Ignorant variety coursing over them, another nightmare scenario is depicted on the track Freedom, Peace And Unity: "They'll spread nuclear power and use the waste to make a bomb, and when a war's declared they'll find a foe to drop it on. And the dying, ruined world will say 'My god, the State was wrong'."

Realists they may have been but Omega Tribe were also optimists who were all too willing to snatch victory and hope from the jaws of defeat and desperation: "Well, it hasn't happened yet, we've still got a choice if we stand up all together, unite and use our voice. Oppose all bigot leaders. Oppose all State violence. Oppose all those deadly bombs, stand up and break the silence. Anything can change if enough people shout. Freedom, peace and unity is what it's all about."

The nub of Omega Tribe's dissatisfaction with the world lay in it being demanded of them and everyone else to accept that violence and war were facts of life which of course, was an absolute lie. The truth of the matter was that humankind got along extremely well together when all things considered and without even thinking about it practised (as anarchist philosopher Prince Peter Kropotkin had pointed out) cooperation and mutual aid. It was the natural state of things. Violence was simply a question of power and semantics.

Most people (apart from possibly a few skinheads still and your common or garden psychopaths) chose not to go around hitting or threatening others and in the main it was only those holding positions of or lusting after power that were actually violent or even really capable of actual violence. For some reason this seemed to be mainly politicians and other authoritative types such as police, army and certain bosses. Violence is violence as Crass had correctly pointed out but there was a world of difference between fisticuffs at a Punk gig and the capability along with the willingness to destroy all life on Earth at the push of a button.

So, violence was not a fact of life at all and the lust for and the sanction of ultimate violence in the form of world destruction as an example, was a perversion. A twisted deviation from the norm. Who in their right mind would want to hold such power? Who in their right mind would want to support such power? Who in their right mind would want to threaten others? Who in their right mind would seek out the capability and have the will to murder? Practically every politician of every stripe and colour for sure but certainly not Omega Tribe: "Leaders lie and children die, we're dreaming of freedom in a nightmare world. Now we can't take much more. What the hell are they fighting for?"

Omega Tribe's strength lay in their ability to communicate such thoughts and ideas through an inviting and easily accessible Pop/Punk medium, given added impetus by their obvious convictions. With this in mind, it was rather strange that they chose to include a slightly clumsy spoken-word piece entitled Mother Of Cultivation as a way of opening up side two of their album. Not that it took anything away from the album as a whole but it didn't exactly add anything either, unlike the following track entitled My Tears.

Already viewed by their 'fan base' as a favourite when played live, My Tears stood out from their set due to it not being weighed down by any Punk trappings. It was the song in which Omega Tribe flew free, enabling them to fully come into their own. Pirouetting as though it was dancing with itself before a mirror, the song's joyful tunefulness and uninhibited emotion was infectious. Concerning itself with the Falklands War, it was proof positive that such subjects could be sugar-coated without losing any seriousness of intent: "I've shed my tears, I've voiced my fears and now it's up to you. Stand down from war and all it's for, show what you can do. Show that callous, brutal lot who sit and make our laws, that we don't need their vicious rules and we don't want their wars."

It was clear right from their first appearance on Bullshit Detector 2 with the track Nature Wonder that Omega Tribe were on an upward trajectory. If they were that good in demo tape form then what might they be like after further rehearsals? Where might they possibly end up going? A re-recorded version of Nature Wonder on the album suggested that whilst rehearsing and playing live had obviously helped to polish their sound and make them more tighter as a group, the real achievement was in the expansion of their musical palette.

Nature Wonder was a fine example of political Pop Punk of which from the start they were clearly very good at but it was the following track on the album, entitled Pictures, that showed their horizons were in no way limited. Incorporating folk-tinged British psychedelia with fuzzboxed Punk thrash, their chiming guitars soared over and collided with 1980s Anarcho realism in a display of endearing enthusiasm and hope.

Whilst a band like Conflict were undoubted masters of their Punk domain and chose to remain firmly within it, the musical ambitions of Omega Tribe lay somewhere else over the rainbow. The essential point being, however, not the differences between Conflict and Omega Tribe but the commonalities.

Both bands were interested in ideas and in ways of changing the world, and both bands were supportive of all kinds of good causes as well as being supporters of each other. As Omega Tribe had declared earlier on the album: "Freedom, peace and unity is what it's all about. Freedom, peace for you and me."

The album ends on a final high note with the track Man Made, with Omega Tribe doing what they did best in the form of a tuneful, uplifting Anarcho Punk workout, wearing their Crass influence and their hearts very much on their sleeve.

No Love Lost was another classic album of its age that like the début albums from The Mob and Zounds would stand the test of time and invite repeat listenings. What Omega Tribe's lasting influence might be was hard to predict but in the here and now they were a very welcome member of the Anarcho Punk ranks.

Only time would tell if they might eventually move toward a more mainstream audience but in possibly doing so would it mean them losing their original audience? Would a more mainstream audience even want them if it meant having undiluted Anarcho politics bound tightly in with pop tunes?

It was a very interesting question but then Omega Tribe were a very interesting band.

Omega Tribe - Angry Songs

OMEGA TRIBE - ANGRY SONGS

Having previously graced Bullshit Detector 2 with the outstanding Nature Wonder track, Omega Tribe had been steadily raising their profile by playing support to bands such as Conflict and Poison Girls, providing a more melodious and approachable counterbalance to Conflict's Punk barrage and Poison Girls' brilliant oddness.

The Angry Songs EP, released on Crass Records, revealed a maturity beyond Omega Tribe's years, not only musically but in their grasp of protest politics where their desire for "a peaceful, happy, equal earth" was tempered by an unblinkered perspective. The opening track, Another Bloody Day, kicked off in healthy Punk mode but then almost immediately cast off its thrash cocoon to reveal the butterfly within. As an elegant piano motif took over, the sudden change of gear gave pause for reflection as vocalist Hugh in dulcet tones asked: "Angry songs and bitter words, have you heard it all before?"

When the Sex Pistols appeared on the Bill Grundy-hosted Today programme in December of 1976, television history was made as they and the idea of 'Punk' was propelled into mainstream public consciousness. Just as important though less acknowledged, however, was their very first appearance on television a few months earlier on the Tony Wilson-hosted So It Goes programme. This was the seminal moment when a combination of factors were joined together to define Punk as inherently a force of absolute relevance and uncontrollable energy. Moreover, it was the moment when utter anger became an integral part of Punk.

"Woodstock!" shouted Johnny Rotten by way of introducing his band, "Coming to get you!" Seemingly aimed not just at Tony Wilson in his soft denim and clogs attire but at the whole smugly satisfied, grim, burnt-out culture of early-Seventies post-hippiedom; it was a taunt brimful of contempt.

"Get off your arse!" Rotten roared, the hostility in his voice and the incandescent fury in his eyes warranting a sense of danger before unleashing a savage version of Anarchy In The UK, soon to become, of course, one of the greatest urban folk songs of the modern age.

As the song screeched to a halt in a blaze of feedback, the band along with leading uber-Punkette Rocker Jordan had already started kicking over mic stands and throwing chairs around the set as the camera zoomed in on Rotten, looking intensely into the distance as though surveying the battlefield of future wars to come.

"Bakunin would have loved it," said Tony Wilson in his summing up and indeed he might well have done; intrigued by the rage, the urge to destruction, the indignation and, of course, the anger. The die was cast. Anger and the feeling and expressing of it would forever more be an important facet of Punk, acting as an engine for action. "'A' equals action, 'T' equals time, 'V' equals vision," as Mark Perry put it, perceptive as ever.

Anger was a weapon for use in defence and attack, a motivating force and a wholly justified response to injustice. Without anger Punk could still be dangerous of a sort though far less potent as would be evidenced by the number of Punk bands over the ensuing years choosing Punk style over Punk substance. The arrival of Crass and (in the words of Garry Bushell) their 'full-frontal, screaming banshee attack' imbuing this Punk anger with an intelligence even fiercer than Rotten's, cementing it as an irrefutable virtue that would inspire legions of new Punks, Omega Tribe being among them.

"Angry songs and bitter words, it's all the same old stuff," advised Omega Tribe, and indeed they had a point. As Anarcho Punk flourished, it was apparent that a plateau had been reached and even though rage was being vented in a variety of ways from Disorder screaming blue murder to Conflict shouting the odds to Crass getting near-hysterical, it was crucial to remember that the medium was not the message, or as Omega Tribe put it: "Angry songs and bitter words, but words are not enough."

Another Bloody Day was a nod toward the same production values as exhibited on No Doves Fly Here by The Mob although a more typical example of where Omega Tribe were at musically was the song Profiteer, which served also as probably the best track on the EP.

If capitalism is cannibalism as Anthrax had pointed out, the engine driving capitalism to devour itself and everything else was the eternal quest for profit. As Conservative government policies prepared the ground for deregulation and privatisation, profitability was becoming the singular method of measuring the worth of anything and everything.

This was a hard and unforgiving ethic of Thatcherism that made a mockery of core human values such as empathy and charity. The profit motive bypassed all notions of collectivism and mutual aid, appealing directly instead to conservative individualism and selfishness. Not that this was any kind of new phenomenon for in one way or another it had always been in place but only now was it being magnified ten-fold. "Implanted from your childhood in your mind is to profit, not to love, to care, be kind," sang Omega Tribe.

Thatcher's advocacy of the free-market supposedly meant the democratization of capitalism and the birth of the stake-holder society but it also meant the social acceptance of exploitation and the sense that greed was a good thing. Thatcher was giving the green light to economics based on the survival of the fittest and then letting that idea bleed into civil society where it would manifest itself as neglect and basic dehumanization of less able people.

Omega Tribe's initial aim was to simply make people aware of aspects of the world such as this, sugaring their message in a tuneful, Anarcho Pop Punk style: "You are exploited from the very day you are born. You are paying them for the privilege of living. You are giving them their profit."

Coming from the same stable as Crass, their suggested solutions were familiar ones: "Why must we suffer to fulfil their positions of power and greed? If you stand out you are a start towards a change. Say 'No!'"

Omega Tribe's special talent was in conveying these ideas in a highly approachable manner, their Angry Songs EP being fine evidence of this, making it to be one of the most respected and loved records of that whole era.