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Ten things you should know about CRASS
Everyone has an opinion about Crass, that is exactly how the band wants it. Their iconography and jargon is designed to get your attention. In George Berger’s book The Story of Crass, he says the band is “despised…with a rare venom rarely reserved for bands”. That seems pretty accurate to me. To some people, Crass sounds wrong or even backwards. Other people worship them. No matter what you think, 2011 will be a busy year for the Crass Corporation. Last week they reissued their first two LP’s – Feeding of the 5000 and Stations of the Crass on CD complete with new artwork, 64 page booklets and tons of bonus tracks. Their third full length, Penis Envy was also reissued on CD but so far it’s only available in the UK. Former Crass singer Steve Ignorant is touring North America in March, playing 2 dates in Canada and 7 here in the states. This will probably be the first and last time most Americans get to experience Crass live (pretty damn close to it anyway) and I’m guessing the shows will be pretty crazy. So here are ten things you should know about Crass, because behind the back patches is a group of people who pioneered DIY punk with a pious call for sanity.
Exit
Long before punk rock was even thought up, Pete Wright, Mick Duffield and Penny Rimbaud were playing in an experimental art-rock band called Exit. The band referred to themselves as “the last of the hippies” and were exactly that. They never charged money at their shows and refused to pay themselves. Exit set up the groundwork for Crass to begin – the band printed their own flyers, used fake names and invited people to join them onstage for improv sessions. In August of 1972 they played with John Cage and 300 other bands at the International Carnival of Experimental Sound. The London based festival was organized by a former FBI agent and blacklisted American Communist party member Harvey “Job” Matusow. Matusow was prosecuted under the McCarthy hearings and spent three years in prison before moving to England to find a job.
I Wanted In
In 1976, Steve Williams was 18 years old. He was living in Bristol and working at a hospital when he saw a flyer for a punk rock show – the Sex Pistols and The Clash. He went down and checked it out and really liked the energy behind punk. At the end of the show, he noticed some kids were yelling insults at The Clash. “Joe Strummer told them that if they could do better to get their own band together. It was like a battle cry. I came away from that gig vowing to do it. I wanted in. That got me back to London”. When he moved back to Dial House, he started Crass with Penny Rimbaud and Eve Libertine. And of course, he became Steve Ignorant and Crass began playing shows later the next year. The first show they played was in 1977, and it took place outside one afternoon on the sidewalk.
Rumor Control
Rumors about Crass have been around since the band began. After all, the band created their own controversy wherever they went simply by being there. Berger’s book confirms and denies a few of them, here are some of the true ones that I like: The band got into a fight with No Wave legends James Chance & The Contortions. Singer Gee Vaucher moved to New York City in the late 70’s and got a job as a political artist with The New York Times. Rimbaud’s father was a civil engineer and helped design Disney World. Which is kind of outrageous, but apparently true. He talks about his family moving to Orlando and visiting them in the book. But the best rumor of them all is one we’ll never verify: John Lennon wrote “Nowhere Man” about Penny Rimbaud. In 1964, Penny appeared with The Beatles on a TV show called Ready Steady Go! where he was submitting a piece of homemade Beatles artwork. The piece was based on the new Beatles single “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and featured a series of mannequin arms. Upon winning the contest, Rimbaud was congratulated by John Lennon, who remarked “‘That’s nowhere, man. I’ll get you for that’.
Thatchergate
In 1983, Crass was at the center of international controversy. Band members engineered and released a fake telephone conversation between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. The tape was made by splicing together impersonators and recorded speeches, and it fooled a lot of people. The San Francisco Chronicle and the Sunday Times in the UK reported that the tape was created by soviet KGB agents and the US State Department got involved. In 1984, much to the surprise of Crass, a British newspaper revealed that the tape was in fact a hoax and that Crass was behind it. The band is still unaware of how the newspaper found out they made it because they went to a great deal of trouble to protect their anonymity.
There Is No Authority But Yourself
Alexander Oey directed a great 70 minute documentary about the band in 2006, which premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in London. The film is streaming for free here
C.R.A.S.S.
In 1981 the band tricked a teenage girls magazine into releasing a flexi 7”. Calling themselves the Creative Recording And Sound Services, they offered the magazine the recording to be included with Loving Magazine. Magazine editors fell for the prank and the magazine was released with the free 7”. The record featured a controversial song written by Joy De Vivre called “Our Wedding” and the fallout of the incident landed them on the cover of NME. In Berger’s excellent book (which again, was a great reference for this top ten, also makes a great Valentines Day gift) Rimbaud explains why they pulled the stunt. “…to expose all this absolute shit they’re shoveling out. I mean, they actually put out Our Wedding, which is totally over the top. I Don’t see how anyone could have taken it seriously. We were amazed when they agreed to put it out.”
Dial House
Like all good punk bands, Crass lived together under the same roof at a place called Dial House. But this was no ordinary flop house, the oldest part of the building dates back to 1400. During the nineteenth century the house was occupied by author Primrose O’Connell, who wrote The Agricultural Notebook, a reference book about farming which is still in print today. While Crass lived at Dial House they had a strict policy of no alcohol or drugs allowed inside, mainly because they were the victim of unannounced, warrant-less searches by the local police. The farming commune is located in South West England and was purchased at auction by by members of Crass, leaving them £100,000 in debt.
Crass Records
After recording their first LP in 1978, Feeding of the 5000, the band entered into a record deal with Small Wonder Records, a post-punk label that had released 7” singles by The Cure and Cockney Rejects. But they had one small problem. Workers at the pressing plant refused to finish pressing the record due to the lyrics of the first song, “Reality Asylum”. As a compromise, Small Wonder allowed the plant to remove the song and replace it with two minutes of silence. The record got printed and distributed with the empty track, which in turn prompted Crass to set up their own record label. Under their own management, they decided the rules. They re-pressed the 17 song LP with the original “Asylum” intact and sold the whole thing for £1.99, which was half the price of most LP’s at that time. The record label was hugely successful, releasing records by Poison Girls, Honey Bane (a teenage runaway who lived at Dial House), Conflict, MDC and KUKL, a band from Iceland that Bjork sang in prior to joining The Sugarcubes. There is a great article about Crass Records over at No Class
Logo & Graphic Design
The band spray painted statements and infamous quips all over England using cardboard stencils. Slogans like “Fight War, Not Wars” and “Destroy Power Not People” were spread by Crass and are often cited as an inspiration for a legion of street artists and culture jammers. Since the band was made up of art school students, it made perfect sense that they would design their own art. And they produced this propaganda the same way they produced their music: by doing it themselves. They handed out screen printed cards, bags of seeds, handmade posters, pamphlets and collages. Their logo was designed by Dial House resident Dave King, who was inspired to create an iconic logo using the techniques of Jasper Johns and the no-bullshit simplicity of the Dada movement. The logo, which can be seen on tattoos and t-shirts worldwide, is something of a mashup of a cross, a British Union flag, and an Ouroboros (a snake eating it’s own tail).
John Loder
The unofficial ninth member of Crass was a former jingle writer named John Loder. John recorded most of the Crass records, was a sound man in Exit and started a recording studio called Southern. He was instrumental in helping Crass Records and Crass the band get off the ground, as well as getting releases on Dischord Records pressed and distributed in Europe. Loder also acted as de facto manager of Crass whenever the need arose.
