Poison Girls - Where's The Pleasure

POISON GIRLS - WHERE'S THE PLEASURE

It's fair to say that a good number of the women at Greenham Common, if not quite outright fans of Poison Girls would have been aware of them and knew they were on their side. It's fair to say, even, that were it not for Poison Girls some of those women would possibly have never become involved in protesting against Cruise missiles in the first place.

Poison Girls encouraged people - and women in particular - to stand up for what they believed to be right and to voice their objection to what they perceived as being wrong. And if this was in regard to the imposition of nuclear madness then to Greenham Common they could go. They gave courage to both men and women to act on their love, their fears, their feelings, and their compassion. Poison Girls emboldened.

Having announced earlier that year that they would no longer be touring with Crass, Poison Girls were now striking out on their own, free from the shadow of being so closely associated with - for some, at least - such a revered band.

Where's The Pleasure was Poison Girls' first studio album since the 'divorce'. Released on their own XNTrix label and produced by Simean Skolfield and Stuart James (as opposed to Penny Rimbaud), like all their previous releases it found them once again in a strange and unique place. Musically they were being more diverse and adventurous than ever whilst lyrically concentrating more on the personal, though in Poison Girls' world the personal was always going to be political and vice versa.

"Where's the pleasure, where's the fun?" asks Vi Subversa in the title track "It don't take much to work it out. Love is what it's all about." And once again there she was getting to the point immediately. The whole reason for her writing and singing her songs was not for fame or fortune or other such trifling things - but for love. The whole message being imparted was not of anarchy or rebellion or whatever - but love. That wasn't to say, however, that in real life love can't be battered and bruised and be painful; and if anyone sounded as though they'd experienced real life to the max, then it was Vi: "I've done it all before," as she tells us in the song of the same name "Losing my head, sharing my bed. Love in the bath, love on the floor. Done it all before. But this is now love, it's me and you love. Take it easy, let's take it slow. Make it last, don't want to lose it. Love will die, love will go, I know. I've done it all before - but not with you."

If there was no love in a relationship or in what you were doing then should that relationship be brought to a close or the course of your direction changed? This is what Vi (and subsequently Poison Girls as a whole band) was expressing as in the title track again: "The feeling's gone, the story's told. The pleasure's over, now it's cold... People alter, people change. I hardly know you, what's your name?"

And then in the track Lovers Are They Worth It, Vi sings: "Some say I'm silly not to realise how good it was, but things are better now that you don't come around no more... Days, when I knew I had to throw you out. And I'm not sorry, even though I'm all alone."

A personal act leading to personal change could also be a revolutionary act leading to revolutionary change. The personal was political and vice versa. As Vi had sang in Don't Go Home Tonight on the Total Exposure album: "Big changes can come from just little actions. You take a little risk, just a small chance. Take a little risk, like don't go home tonight."

No better is the personal/political relationship exemplified than in the track Soft Touch where Vi tells the story of a boy and a girl going to bed together for the first time: "They were tired, they were drunk and both of them were full of dread. He hoped she would be cute enough to detonate his armaments, but he felt like the government that couldn't get its rockets up."

Rather than going at it like a battle, however, they discover that softness can be ecstasy: "So they realised that sex didn't have to be a fight, time and time again they made energetic peace that night. Both ways up and both ways round, with no attack and no defence, they beat the government with sexual disarmament."

Was there anyone else but Vi Subversa who could connect oral sex with the British government's national defence policy?

And talking of 'defence', how and from who knows where that very issue is addressed in the track Take The Toys in which Poison Girls go acappella, delivering not so much a song but an incantation: "Take the toys from the boys, made a bullet out of rubber. Take their hands off the dials, made a cannon out of water. Get their minds off the money, gotta make a killing. Made a bomb."

At later gigs, rather than singing it live, a recording of this particular track would be played over the p.a. before the band stepped out onto the stage; causing the audience to stop their chattering and creating a sudden change of atmosphere. The effect was spine-tingling.

In an additional track entitled Take The Toys (Reprise), they again go acappella but this time with just two lines being repeated over and over, but those two lines speaking volumes: "Oh no, another bloody bomb song, bomb song. Oh no, another bloody peace march, peace march."

For all this, the most overtly political track on the album is Rio Disco Stink, in which Vi introduces to the agenda the subject of Rio Tinto Zinc, the multi-national mining company responsible for importing uranium to the UK from its mines in South Africa. This being at a time of Apartheid and in contravention of UN resolutions stating that South Africa's natural resources should only be sold with the consent of the UN Council for Namibia - which hadn't been given.

"Do you know what it means when you hear the pain in an ugly woman's song?" asks Vi "I know the truth, I won't hold my tongue about what's going on. I know what it means when you look away when I sing my song. I've got nothing to gain and nothing to lose, and what you do is wrong."

The uranium was being imported under contracts signed in the Sixties by the UK Atomic Energy Authority and RTZ. It just so happened that the British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington (before moving on to become the Secretary General of NATO after resigning from the government over the Falklands crisis) was a director of RTZ (who were investors in British Petroleum, who were interested in the oil around the Falklands) but also that Queen Elizabeth was a major investor in them.

"It's not enough to cry when the miners die at Rio Tinto Zinc, uranium will kill your son whatever you want to think... I know what it means to want to blow up the Queen and Rio Tinto Zinc... The company banks fill up their tanks but you can't lock up the stink.. Are you feeling proud of that hole in the ground at Rio Tinto Zinc?"

The most powerful track on the album, however, is Cry No More which comes across as a genuinely heartfelt confession as Vi confides that she's simply tired of crying: "..For the underprivileged, for the blacks, the women, for even black women. I'm tired of crying for the starving children, for the Irish, for the unemployed, refugees, amputees, for the pain of the Third World, the poor unfortunates of Hiroshima, Bikini, America... I'm tired of crying for America."

The list continues and never was Vi's voice more fitting for a song: "I'm tired of crying for collection boxes, for noble causes, for victims, more victims. Victims of violence and protection, victims of privilege, more violence, more victims. For teachers lies, for poisoned milk, I'm tired of crying - it changes nothing. For the abuse of sex, the endless rape, the decay, the decaying. I'm tired of crying. For the broken hopes, broken hearts and promises, for the broken backs and the broken dreams. I'm tired of crying."

Years later, Mark of The Mob would say that Cry No More was probably the best Anarcho Punk record ever and his claim would be a valid one.

"It's a savage world, a savage world and I'm tired. And I just want to cry - for me."

The album ends with the track Fear Of Freedom, leaving the listener standing on the spot having been accused of something applicable to all: "Why do you think that they are laughing?" Asks Vi before telling us "Because they've got you where they want you. They taught you fear of falling. They taught you fear of feeling. They taught you fear of freedom. Fear of freedom."

Which meant, of course, that only we held the key and that nobody else could provide it for us. Not Crass, not Poison Girls, nor anyone. Only ourselves.

According to music critic Johnny Waller when reviewing the album in Sounds newspaper, Where's The Pleasure was 'the last great Punk record', which was a nice thing to say and a huge compliment to make though not true by a long chalk. In fact, it would actually be the album that would lose Poison Girls a large chunk of their hardcore Punk audience due to the softening and diversifying of their sound. For the Punk hardcore there were other, more harsher sounding bands to attract and hold their attention than Poison Girls with their new, melodious, post-Punk agit folk rhythms. But that was fair enough and no bad reflection on the hardcore Punks at all.

Poison Girls were moving into the future.

Everyone was happy.

Wargasm

WARGASM

Going against the grain of the divisiveness of the music press, an LP by the name of Wargasm was released on the Pax label that brought together bands and artists from across the full spectrum of Punk, uniting them all under an anti-war banner.

Pax Records was the brainchild of one Marcus Featherby, a music promoter based in Sheffield who had for some time been putting on gigs at a venue called Marples in the city's centre. Featherby was a music enthusiast trying to straddle the always conflicting worlds of the music business and doing what was actually right and proper when it came to what could be termed 'Punk ideology'.

Wargasm featured 12 tracks from 12 different bands and artists covering various Punk scenes and styles: Old Punk, New Punk, Anarcho Punk, Hardcore Punk, Goth, Oi!, No Wave and straightahead Experimental. Among those included was Captain Sensible, Angelic Upstarts, Infa Riot, Maus Maus, Flux Of Pink Indians, and The System. Overall, it was a very strong album with all royalties being divided between a variety of good causes. Two tracks in particular, however, stood out.

The first, Kinky Sex Makes The World Go Round by the Dead Kennedys was similar to what Crass had done on their Sheep Farming In The Falklands flexi-disc as in depicting a situation where Thatcher achieves orgasm at the prospect of war.

Dead Kennedys vocalist Jello Biafra, posing as the Secretary of War at the State Department of the United States calls Thatcher at 10 Downing Street and advises something needs to be done about the "sluggish world economic situation", suggesting as an antidote another war be started: "The more people we kill in this war, the more the economy will prosper. We can get rid of of practically everybody on your dole queue if we plan this right."

As Thatcher whimpers with delight in the background, the idea is expounded upon: "Don't worry about demonstrators. Just pump up your drug supply. It's just like Vietnam. We had everybody so busy with LSD they never got too strong. Kept the war functioning just fine. It's easy. Look - war is money. We all agree the time has come for the Big One, so whadya say?"

Come the end of the track, Thatcher is in the throes of orgasmic delight.

The second stand-out track from the album and in fact, the best one on it by far was Statement by Poison Girls. This was an entirely new version of the song that had come as a flexi-disc with the Poison's début album, Chappaquiddick Bridge, and to say this version was extraordinarily good was an understatement.

The first third of the song saw Vi Subversa singing over an orchestral backing before leading into a classic Poison Girls/Punky thrash, then finishing with the two backings - orchestral and Punk thrash - combined. The Punky/thrash segment can only be described as sublime, coming with an added verse: "Rooted in pain, they sell their own flesh. Rooted in pain, they'll do anything for money. They deal in death, with minds that feed on hate. In fear of life, they kill without pity. In fear of love, they kill and they rape. In fear of love, they rape without pity..."

And then finishing with the same words as on the flexi-disc version: "Where are they that will cherish my flesh? Where are they that will cherish our children? The men that will say No to the death dealers? The children that can say NO to the life stealers? Where are they that will curse the death dealers? I reject the system."

The fact that such a good song was being freely donated to a compilation LP was yet further proof of what such a good band Poison Girls were. If any further proof be needed?

Apart from the music, Wargasm came with a powerful essay written by Marcus Featherby that successfully combined the anger and insight of Crass with the realities of war as depicted by Discharge. In it's call for unity it also underlined the reason behind the release of the album: 'All wars are foul, dirty and more revolting than your imagination will allow but we are still supposed to accept them. We will never persuade the so-called world leaders to stop lobbing missiles at each other as long as we continue to fight amongst ourselves. As long as ordinary people remain divided, governments and politicians will continue to use us as disposable war fodder to bolster their own importance and power.

We must take that power away from these vile people. We have to let them know that we won't accept their putrid egocentric lust. If they insist on continuing their suicidal blood bath, chuck them into a cesspool and let them sort it out themselves.

But leave us out of it. Let us live our lives in peace and friendship. We have to show them that our propaganda is as effective as theirs, by supporting the peace movements and working together for a more realistic and sane world. The next decade is OUR future, and unless we can force some changes, there won't be any future that we can even consider for our own children.

Forget your petty differences and join together and PROTEST... it is the only weapon we have, but it could be more powerful than all the bombs or politicians throughout the world.

LISTEN to this record. READ the lyrics. THINK.'

Poison Girls - Total Exposure

POISON GIRLS - TOTAL EXPOSURE

"Never mind The Bomb, who's got the biggest cock?!" So began Poison Girls' second album, Total Exposure, a live recording of a gig played in Edinburgh at a venue called the Lasswade Centre in July of 1981. Thrown out at the audience almost as a challenge, the question was effectively setting the scene for the evening's entertainment.

Poison Girls were never ones for equivocating or for messing around so immediately hauled the audience out into the deep end by launching into their most well known song, Persons Unknown, delivered on this occasion with a twist. Rather than the swirling vortex as played on the Crass label 7" single release, the tempo was being upped and topped-off with the near operatic backing vocals of bassist Bernhardt Rebours, instantly turning the song and subsequently the gig into a joyous celebration.

Most bands, of course, would always save their most well known song for last, played usually as an encore but not for Poison Girls such hoary rock'n'roll traditions. They instead were coming out fighting like a heavyweight boxer, delivering knock-out blows that immediately sent the audience reeling.

"State control and rock'n'roll," continued Vi Subversa without so much as a pause between songs "Are run by clever men. They build you up and they break you down, you're on the dole again. State control and rock'n'roll are run by clever men. It's all good for business, we're in the charts again - Ha ha! You know it's true but what can you do? You look for a gap to get out of the trap it's a vicious circle, try and break loose. Break out of the trap! Get out of the noose! You know it's true but what can you do? What you're feeling is a human being not this year's thing or last year's thing. This year's thing or last year's thing oh state control and rock'n'roll are run by clever men... And anarchy is this year's thing."

The same upbeat pace continues through to the song Tension, taking in Old Tart's Song and Bully Boys and by this point in the proceedings it's apparent to all that Poison Girls are the holders of a bright but very subversive intelligence. Alongside the sheer enjoyment, the dancing, the tunes and the sheer exuberance of the gig it's clear that a dialogue is going on. Questions were being asked, ideas floated and preconceived notions challenged: "The tension between what you do and you don't do, the tension between what you can and you can't do. The tension between what you will and you won't do - oh, what you won't do! Tension is how you spend most of your life, the smile in your eyes in spite of the lies... If you had wings my love would you fly? If you knew that you never would die would you live - would you try?"

There was no sense of preaching from the stage or in any of the lyrics, just an urge to the listener to open up, be brave, and dare to talk openly, dare to act honestly, and dare to reveal their true self without fear of ridicule or insult. Just as Vi Subversa - a middle-aged mother singing on stage as part of an Anarcho Punk band - was doing: "Total exposure - total abandon. Total exposure - total control."

By mid way into the gig (and mid way into the album), the ice has not only been broken but smashed to smithereens with band and audience alike fully at ease with each other and 'freed-up'; this being the point that things get interesting.

"My greatest moments," said Vi in an interview with the NME "Are the moments when I've done really tender bits, live, to quite ferocious-looking audiences, because what I'm doing is to address that tender part in those people. And when that actually works, it's really moving."

So, much slower songs such as Other and Daughters And Sons are played without losing grip of the audience and in fact, causing the grip on and the bond with the audience to tighten. This is when Poison Girls get intimate, though it comes with a caveat as Vi declares in the song Fucking Mother: "I'm not your fucking mother and I'm not your fucking whore, I'm not your baby sister or the girl next door. You can roll your eyes to heaven for a virgin to adore but there's someone right beside you, who could ask for more? As you eye each other up for a fuck or a fight."

Then it's full steam ahead into the last lap of the gig with the band calling out in unison during the song Dirty Work, "We don't want your dirty war! We don't want your dirty war!"; before ending with the song Alienation, with guitarist Richard Famous stating "There's no choice for you, no choice for me," over and over again as Vi counters with two very simple questions: "What you gonna do about it? What are we gonna do about it?"

Total Exposure was a snapshot of Poison Girls at the top of their game though so fluid were they that there was no chance of it pinning them down or capturing them for posterity. From their very start, they were always an impossible band to pigeon-hole and though their politics were solid and steadfast, their constant twisting and turning made them an extremely unusual if not challenging prospect.

Years later, Penny Rimbaud would say: "Poison Girls were an absolutely extraordinary group of people led by a very powerful feminist voice, as in Vi Subversa - a brilliant poet. They were a complete equal to us (Crass) on every level. They talked personal politics, we talked social politics. They were talking about the real issues as in how do you get out of bed in the morning, where as we were talking, 'well, I've got out of bed, I've had my coffee, I've had my 38 cigarettes and now I'll talk politics'."

Released on their own XNTrix label, Total Exposure marked a turning point in Poison Girls' trajectory, having announced with the release of the album that they would no longer be partnering with Crass: "By the 97th gig," Vi explained "It was becoming clear that Crass's commercial success was obscuring what we were doing. If you're in a partnership and one partner becomes dominant... the classic example is a marriage. It became clear we had to get out of that. I never wanted to be a wife - certainly not Crass's."

Sadly - but rightly - it was something that had to be done. The Crass/Poison Girls partnership had fired untold imaginations and was the catalyst to launch a thousand bands but the popularity of Crass was eclipsing what Poison Girls were doing, meaning they were starting to be viewed as a support act rather than a force unto themselves. Both bands would have been aware of this which meant it was an unfair situation for both to be in. Poison Girls could easily have played it safe and rode along to see where things might lead but of course, they weren't the kind of people to do that.

It was a brave move and what better way to signal change was afoot than by the release of Total Exposure on Poison Girls' own label? An exceptionally good live recording of an exceptionally good band that bared them to one and all - the cover sleeve being see-through and the vinyl clear - showing they had nothing to be ashamed about, nothing to hide, and everything, in fact, to be very proud of.

Poison Girls - All Systems Go

POISON GIRLS - ALL SYSTEMS GO

If Discharge were blazing a whole new trail for Punk Rock to travel then the Poison Girls were doing likewise but going off at a completely different tangent. Both bands were sat at almost opposing extremes though both were similar in the way they were polarising critics, leading to both being either loved, hated or studiously ignored.

If Discharge were playing unlistenable music (for unliveable times) then Poison Girls were playing music for pleasure in a very mature manner and it was a sign of the times that the only people able and willing to appreciate both bands at once was the Punk crowd who were acknowledging, perhaps, not only the form but the content.

All Systems Go was Poison Girls' first 7" record totally of their own and featured two tracks, Promenade Immortelle and Dirty Work. Though very much their own record, the connection to Crass was still on full display as in being released on Crass Records, produced by Penny Rimbaud, featuring Eve Libertine on backing vocals, with photography by Gee Vaucher.

Piano, gliding synthesizer, delicate guitar and gentle bass created a grand audioscape buoyed by perfect drumming for the vocals of Vi Subversa and Bernhardt Rebours to caress the listener with words of hope and defiance: "Strong with the strength of all that has gone and all that will change. Strong with the strength of the longing and pain that flows through our veins. Strong we are strong with the rage of the past and all that will fade. Strong we are strong with wave upon wave of change after change.

Wave... Wave... Wave upon wave upon wave. Wave... Wave... And we have survived and we stand here again."

There was something of the epic about Promenade Immortelle; something modestly, even shyly majestic. If ever a song was fit to be played on national radio then surely this was it? If ever a record might appeal to teenage Anarcho Punk Rockers and their parents alike then - surely - this was the one? Promenade Immortelle should have been the song that took Poison Girls from being viewed purely as an underground Anarcho group to being cast into the mainstream where up against other groups with much bigger budgets and major label support they could have proudly held their own. But alas, it didn't happen and it begged the question as to why? What was preventing such a talented, original and accessible band such as Poison Girls from being picked up on by a mainstream audience? Not that there was anything to suggest this was what Poison Girls wanted or that they were looking to be signed to a major label or any such nonsense but now and again these things would happen whether a band was actively seeking them or not. So why were they only being appreciated by their hardcore audience? Why weren't they being at least offered a slot on Top Of The Pops or even a John Peel session? Was the Crass connection doing them more harm than good, perhaps?

Not that Poison Girls had lost their edge in any way nor their spikiness as evidenced by the other track on the record, Dirty Work. Propelled by tribal drumming and scorched by fuzzbox feedback, the words are delivered in an almost robotic fashion: "Bombing cities pulling switches we won't do your dirty work, making death is full employment we won't do your dirty work. Bombing cities bombing people while you eat your dirty meal, we won't serve you at your table screw your dirty deal."

At a time of escalating mass unemployment when simply having a job was considered to be lucky, to question how you might earn a living and the effects of your job upon others was a thorn in the eye for the likes of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) who were demanding The Right To Work. Nuclear power and weapons manufacturing were two (entwined) industries whose tentacles spread far and wide, with both offering a living wage but at what cost? And because they offered employment did it mean these industries had the backing of the TUC?

"Bombing cities washing dishes we don't want your dirty work, easy living easy killing we won't do your dirty work. We won't make your dirty weapons to defend your dirty law... We won't do your dirty washing, war machine is bloody real... We don't want your dirty war!"

Poison Girls may have been making music for what could could be termed 'easy listening' but they weren't in any way making for easy listening.

Poison Girls - Hex

POISON GIRLS - HEX

Prior to the release of their début album, Poison Girls had released an 8 track, 12" EP entitled Hex; a joint venture between the Small Wonder label and the Poison Girls' own XNTrix label.

Laden with samples years before sampling became a popular device used by bands, the music was taut, angular and (as Mark E Smith would have it) totally wired; complimenting perfectly the edgy but very humane and heartfelt vocals of Vi Subversa. This was music born of Punk but departing from it and setting forth along its own chosen path, making and breaking its own rules along with everyone else's.

Lyrically, this was Vi Subversa coming from an entirely original (in terms of rock'n'roll, at least) position, that being of a forty-something mother suddenly given the freedom to express herself politically, as in the politics of everyday life. 

Starting off with the sound of a silent phone-call, on the opening track Old Tarts Song, Vi immediately puts herself in with good company: "Everybody has their price. Up yours!" she snarls. Just two years earlier, Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex had more or less declared the same sentiment: "Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard but I think, 'Oh bondage, up yours!'"

Though generations apart, both Vi and Poly were coming from the same place and reading from the same page. "Identity! It's a crisis, can't you see?" sang Poly, whilst on the track Crisis, Vi asks "Is it safe to go out shopping, leave the kids outside the toilet? Water dripping on the carpet, leave the kids outside the local? Strangers tapping at the window, is it time to have a crisis? Is it normal? Is this normal? Is it just another day?"

"I'm lost," admits Vi. "So lost, just like you. No-one knows what the hell to do. Or where to go, or when or how or why or which, then or now. No-one knows cos no-one cares, we just look on with ice cold stares. We see the light but turn it out. We dare not act. We whisper our truth, we're afraid to shout. So no-one learns cos no-one shares. We nurse our burns, we hide our cares..." Whilst paying attention to her spoken words we suddenly realise we have entered a completely new song and landed in a completely different landscape, the kind of which for all her brilliance Poly Styrene never ventured.

The Bremen Song, featuring Eve Libertine from Crass as a backing vocalist, offers up proof if needed that Poison Girls were a highly original and fascinatingly curious band. Throwing up imagery of womankind depicted throughout history as witches and heretics burnt at the stake, Vi turns this depiction on its head and snatches it back from a position of victimhood to empowerment. The song is a work of pure feminist art.

On the track Political Love, Vi suggests that whether we realise it or not and whether we like it or not, love is always politicised. Whilst on Jump Mama Jump, Vi calls to "all the Punk mothers out there" and beseeches them to "come out of hiding". Better that than be Under The Doctor, being dealt "some mighty fine dope: Librium, Mogodon, Thorazine, Valium. Though they haven't got a pill called Hope".

"What I'm trying to say," confides Vi "Is you gotta be strong, cos nothing takes the pain away for long".

Hex closes with the song Reality Attack, being all staccato, piercing, fuzzbox guitars, ending with fellow band member Richard Famous urging that we "Attack reality! Attack reality!"; before being joined by the whole band shouting out "Attack! Attack! Attack!" over which Vi cries out "I am alone! I am alone! I am alone!" And then sudden silence.

What Poison Girls had created with their début 12" EP was not just a short collection of songs but a coherent whole, a complete piece of work. Any critic of music chancing upon it at the time of its release (and Small Wonder was by then a respected Independent label so critics should have been paying attention to what they were releasing) would have recognised something very unusual was going on, that a strange flower had suddenly blossomed. For some reason, however, Hex was studiously ignored. Poison Girls didn't fit in with anything, basically, and critics seemed to find this a problem.

Through their association with Crass, Poison Girls were labelled Anarcho Punk and if this was the cap that fitted then they were even more Anarcho Punk than Crass. Penny Rimbaud had produced Hex and as mentioned, Eve Libertine featured on one of the tracks; a few years later Hex would even be re-released on the Crass label. So, the Crass connection was an important one but in the end it was Poison Girls who were more important to Crass rather than the other way round for not only did they put the money up to pay for the recording of Stations Of The Crass but they also added a whole new, extended dimension and depth to the idea of Anarcho Punk.
Poison Girls were an inspirational phenomenon.

Poison Girls - Chappaquiddick Bridge

POISON GIRLS - 

CHAPPAQUIDDICK BRIDGE

Chappaquiddick Bridge was the début album from Poison Girls, named after the incident in 1969 in which the car of Senator Ted Kennedy, the younger brother of President John F Kennedy, went off a bridge and into a river, killing the female passenger. The incident led to much scandal and controversy due to Kennedy managing to swim to safety but then fleeing the scene of the accident and not reporting it to the police until the next day. Following an autopsy, it was found the girl had died not from drowning but through suffocation. Apparently she had been able to find an air pocket inside of the submerged car where she would have been able to stay alive for a while and if Kennedy had only called the police and the rescue services immediately she could have been saved. Kennedy for some reason or other escaped being jailed and remained a Senator until his death in 2009.

Though carrying the by now almost obligatory instruction of 'Pay no more than...', the gate-fold sleeve of the album broke away from what was becoming the normal Crass label black and white design and was instead a glossy and bright red affair, incorporating a beautiful yin yang/foetus symbol.

An unlisted and unannounced track starts the album, slowly fading in and turning on its axis like a giant discus spinning endlessly on its edge before fading quietly away again: "State control and rock'n'roll are run by clever men," sings Vi Subversa, sounding as though her point of view is born from personal experience and a worldly wisdom. "It's all good for business and it all goes round again. State control and rock'n'roll are run by clever men, politics are ultra chic and wars are in again. Revolution's this year's thing, we're on the streets again and again." Vi's message is essentially one of caution - to watch out, to beware - because everything is a game of swings and roundabouts with fashions coming and fashions going; all controlled by "the boss mob". Everything is sold and then re-sold because "it's all good for business". Music in particular but even wars, politics, revolution, ideology and political theory - and "anarchy is this year's thing".

Being regular touring partners of Crass and from being on the Crass label, Poison Girls were viewed as part of an Anarcho/Crass package though of course they were very much their own band and the marriage was essentially one of convenience. Vi Subversa was a self-proclaimed anarchist and through her songs with Poison Girls and her deliverance of them through her unique vocal style brought a warmth and a strange sense of wonder to Poison Girls' anarchism that was missing from the Crass version. In songs on the album such as Hole In The Wall and Other, there's no overt or apparent political message at all but the sense of wonder and strangeness is obvious, enhanced by the use of piano, echo and dub sound effects.

The stand out track on the whole album is Daughters And Sons which whilst dealing in the very un-rock'n'roll subjects of age, growing old and loss, is brilliantly and exceptionally inspirational.

To the sound of an electric violin effect and a dropping, single bass note, Vi sets the scene: "When you wake up sweating, sweating from a dream, from the same dream that you had the night before. And you're feeling old and you feel the cold from a drought that's coming in through your door... And your son has gone out, yes he's gone out hunting with the man who was your brother. And your daughter's lying, lying on the bed with the man who was your lover... And your daughter's gone out, yes she's gone out dancing with the one who was your lover. And she's picked up all your songs, all the songs you ever sang. And she's picked up plenty more."

As the song builds to a crescendo, a faint guitar riff grows ever louder before being joined by bass, drums and backing vocals. It's at this point that the song rises to a whole new level as Vi, like a matriarch supreme, beseeches her "daughters and sons" to "sing your own songs, you've got your own songs to sing. You can sing your own songs, there's new songs to sing. Come on, sing your own songs - you've got new songs to sing. Sing your own songs."

In its own modestly quiet way, Daughters And Sons is as powerful and inspiring as anything written and sung by the Pistols, The Clash or indeed even Crass. The point of the song being not only an imploring of children to sing their own songs but to live their own life. 'It's your life, so smash and grab it', as Poison Girls would later declare.

The album ends with another unlisted and unannounced track comprised of a few very simple lines sung very sweetly but repeatedly by a young girl: "Oh, my tender lover. Be my tender lover. Be my tender love." The girl's voice is joined and then gradually eclipsed by the much older sounding, cracked and smoke-ravaged voice of Vi's reciting the exact same words, followed by the sound of children laughing and playing. This short but evocative rhyme evokes a depth of emotion that most other bands could only ever dream of and stands as an example of how successfully Poison Girls could marry complex feelings in certain songs with a hardline anarchist stance in others without compromising on either.

This delicate yet complicated balance is exemplified in the song entitled Statement which came as an additional 7" flexi-disc enclosed within the sleeve of the album. The very first lines of this track as recited by Vi places her fairly, squarely and without equivocation into the anarchist camp of Anarcho Punk: "I denounce the system that murders my children. I denounce the system that denies my existence. I curse the system that makes machines of my children. I reject the system that makes men of machines." Vi then goes on to curse, reject and denounce that same system "that turns the bodies of my own sweet flesh into monsters of iron and steel and war, that turns the hearts of my children against this earth, that turns the genitals of my children into factories of fire and destruction. And rapes our flesh, and tears our womb, this earth our home."

In between Vi's heartfelt pronouncements the accompanying music stops to make space for a lone voice to appear, plaintively declaring "There are no words, for us no words. There are no words." Vi then asks despairingly "Where are they that will cherish my flesh? Where are they that will cherish my children? The men that will stand against the deathdealers? The children who can say No to the lifestealers? Where are they that will curse the deathdealers? I denounce the system."

This combination of stark defiance and sad acknowledgement is what gives the song and what gives Poison Girls a rare benevolence, in the process creating something very unique and very, very special.

Due to their partnership with Crass, Poison Girls were sharing and communicating with the same audience but it's probably true to say that Poison Girls were appealing more to the female members and the more thoughtful elements of that audience. To some, Poison Girls were indeed deemed to be a better band than Crass and in many ways they actually were. Whatever, without question Poison Girls were - like Crass - a uniquely profound band who impacted deeply upon a lot of people causing them to consider, to think and - just as importantly - to act.

Crass - Bloody Revolutions / Poison Girls - Persons Unknown

CRASS - BLOODY REVOLUTIONS

POISON GIRLS - PERSONS UNKNOWN

Released in May 1980 on their own label, Bloody Revolutions was Crass's second 7" single and it found them hitting a high water mark in all areas. In hindsight even, it could arguably be the best record they ever produced? Incorporating a range of styles, tempos and influences all into one song as well as uniting the vocals of Steve Ignorant and Eve Libertine for the first time, it was the most ambitious record they had ever created for sure. And without any question, it was one of the most straight-forward and directly political records created too. Ever.

"You talk about revolution, well that's fine," begins Steve Ignorant "But what are you going to be doing come the time? Are you gonna be the big man with the tommy gun? Will you talk of freedom when the blood begins to run? Well, freedom has no value if violence is the price. I don't want your revolution, I want anarchy and peace."

As was typically the case with Crass songs, the point of Bloody Revolutions was arrived at immediately - like a news bulletin - wasting no time on metaphors, euphemisms or symbolism.

From the 1960s and onwards the Far Left within Britain had always made great play with the theme of revolution, particularly when engaging with youth. Protest in any form had become inexorably linked with socialist and communist ideas, more often than not led by and promoted by vanguards of University-educated intellectuals advocating various brands of political dogma be it Trotskyism, Marxism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism and all colours red in-between. But however much a fundamental change in conditions within Britain (and the world) was required, the kind of revolution favoured by all these would-be new leaders in waiting essentially meant the replacement of one political system with another and one political elite for another.

"You talk of overthrowing power with violence as your tool, you speak of liberation and when the people rule. Well ain't it people rule right now? What difference would there be? Just another set of bigots with their rifle sights on me."

So bound were these self-styled revolutionaries to their political treatises and credos that they were easy targets for satire and caricature, no more amusingly done than in the BBC comedy series Citizen Smith starring Robert Lindsay as the hapless leader of the Tooting Popular Front.

"Power to the people!" Citizen Smith cried out at the start of each episode, his clenched fist raised high - only to be met with a withering look from a passing old lady.

"Viva la revolution! People of the world unite! Stand up men of courage, it's your job to fight!" Eve Libertine calls out midway through Bloody Revolutions, only to be countered by Steve Ignorant in full Punk rant mode: "It all seems very easy, this revolution game but when you start to really play, things won't be quite the same. Your intellectual theories on how it's going to be don't seem to take into account the true reality. Cos the truth of what you're saying as you sit there sipping beer is pain and death and suffering, but of course you wouldn't care."

To a generation this would have been the first time they would ever have encountered genuine anarchist opinion and it was being made all the more powerful by the clear and precise intonation of Eve Libertine's vocals: "So don't think you can fool me with your political tricks. Political Right, political Left - you can keep your politics." Once again, the message that Crass were conveying was a revelatory one, challenging not only preconceived ideas but coming across as straight-forward and absolute common sense: "Government is government and government is force. Left or Right or Right or Left, it takes the same old course. Oppression and restriction, regulation, rule and law. The seizure of that power is all your revolution's for."

If all that the Far Left could advocate was revolution leading to just another form of government and the continued centralisation of power, then ultimately how radical were their ideas? Was not a revolution, after all, a movement describing a complete circle? And would not a revolution even for the hell of it be simply a bloody adventure leading straight back to where it began, as in "oppression, restriction, regulation, rule and law"?

Crass were raising the flag instead for anarchy in the UK as a serious proposition, advising those with a more socialist inclination not to look to their political leaders for answers but to themselves: "You romanticise your heroes, quote from Marx and Mao. Well, their ideas of freedom are just oppression now. Nothing's changed for all the death that their ideas created, it's just the same fascistic games but the rules aren't clearly stated. Nothing's really different cos all government's the same, they can call it freedom but slavery is the game."

Crass had been playing under an anarchist banner for some time and had played benefit gigs in aid of the Anarchist Black Cross and in support of the British anarchists known as Persons Unknown, whose comrades at that time were being charged with conspiring with 'persons unknown' to cause explosions. Bloody Revolutions was Crass nailing themselves firmly to the anarchist mast, not only in words but in action. All the money to be made from the sale of the record would go towards the setting up of an anarchist centre in London; a place where like-minded people could meet and share their ideas, as well as being an alternative venue for bands to play.

Though Bloody Revolutions was sold for just 70p a copy, in the end over £12,000 would be raised for the proposed centre, which would open the following year in an old warehouse in Wapping, in East London. The Autonomy Centre, as it was called, though it wouldn't last very long was to be the catalyst for buildings to be taken over in a similar fashion not only in other areas of London but in cities throughout Britain.

"There's nothing that you offer but the dream of last year's hero." declared Crass in unison as a final summing up of the Far Left "The truth of revolution, brother - is Year Zero." If their previous actions, words and records had not already suggested it, Bloody Revolutions sealed Crass's reputation as being the hardest of the hardcore.

"I actually agree with much of what Crass say," commented John Peel after playing the record on his show "They would probably view me, however, and my role at the BBC as part of what they're against." This, even after Peel had awarded Crass a session the year before.

'Anarchy in the UK. Work for it now.' stated one of the many slogans adorning the sleeve of Bloody Revolutions. 'Abort the system. Do it now. Not a dream. Peace please. Anarchy now. Ignore rock'n'roll heroes. It's your life, live it. Demand more, it's always there. They said that we were trash. Love, not war. This time it's for real.' After a history of fake rebellion and false promises throughout the whole of rock'n'roll's torrid and chequered past, this time it did indeed appear to be for real.

Joining Crass on the other side of the record was Poison Girls who had by this time become their regular touring partners, offering up a song going by the title Persons Unknown. Fronted by forty-five year-old mother of two, Vi Subversa, Poison Girls were a curious counterbalance to the perceived hard-line stance held by Crass. Similarly politically charged though with more personal and more feminist-leaning lyrics, they were a fascinatingly challenging band on many levels.

The term 'persons unknown' was the catch-all name given to describe the people whom Irish and British anarchists Ronan Bennett and Iris Mills were accused of conspiring with to cause explosions in a somewhat ludicrous showcase trial involving trumped-up charges emanating from the British Security Services/Anti-Terrorist Squad.

Ronan Bennett was alleged to have links with the IRA and on linking up with Iris Mills who was a member of the editorial team behind anarchist newspaper Black Flag, fears were sparked of a new Angry Brigade-style bombing campaign on mainland Britain. The fact that no actual explosions had occurred and that there was no evidence at all regarding whom the accused were meant to be conspiring with - hence the term 'persons unknown' - suggested either basic State paranoia and incompetence or more worryingly, an endeavour by the State to make thought a crime.

Poison Girls reaction to the issue was to ask who might it be that the State actually meant when they referred to 'persons unknown'?:

"This is a message to persons unknown" begins Vi in her knowing but strangely smoke-ravaged voice "Persons in hiding, persons unknown. Survival in silence isn't good enough no more, keeping your mouth shut, head in the sand. Terrorists and saboteurs each and every one of us, hiding in shadows - persons unknown. Hey there Mr Average, you don't exist, you never did, hiding in shadows - persons unknown. Habits of hiding soon will be the death of us, dying in secret from poisons unknown."

A long list is then recited of everyone who could possibly be construed as being 'persons unknown', ranging from "Housewives and prostitutes, plumbers in boiler suits, wild girls and criminals, patients in corridors, liggers and layabouts, lovers on roundabouts, accountants in nylon shirts, feminists in floral skirts, astronauts and celibates, deejays and hypocrites, liars and lunatics, pimps and economists, royalty and communists, rioters and pacifists" to "Visionaries with coloured hair, leather boys who just don't care, garter girls with time to spare, judges with prejudice, dissidents and anarchists, strikers and pickets, collectors of tickets, beggars and bankers, perjurers and men of law, smokers with heart disease, cleaners of lavatories, the old with their memories."

Though Ronan and Iris were eventually acquitted of all charges, Poison Girls were making it very clear that 'persons unknown' were indeed very real: "Flesh and blood are who we are, flesh and blood are what we are. Our cover is blown." Everyone and anyone was a 'person unknown', which meant that in the eyes of the State everyone and anyone was a potential conspirator.

Persons Unknown - as in the song - was masterful. A swirling, echoing psychedelic tour de force that soared above Crass's more grounded Bloody Revolutions, confirming Poison Girls' status as being an extremely original and very special band.

Loaded with copious sleeve notes and an array of contact addresses, along with a brilliantly rendered fold-out poster created by Crass silent member, Gee Vaucher, depicting the Pope, the Queen, Thatcher and the statue of Justice as the Sex Pistols; the whole record was not only a complete and extremely well thought-out package but a doorway - a portal - into a completely new and alternative world. A world diametrically opposite to the one not a million miles away that Thatcher, her government and its supporters were busy constructing...