There Is No Authority But Yourself

I was too young to be into Crass during the time the band existed- I could have caught the tail end of them in 1983/4 I suppose but didn't. They were always a bit foreboding, the logo, the word Crass stencilled on the back of denim and leather jackets of hardcore mid/ late- 80s punks. Even the name Crass was unfriendly, standoffish, oppositional. During the 90s when a flush of books about punk were published I read about Crass and then began to explore the music a little, more so when the internet arrived in my house but I couldn't say I'm an expert. Whenever I read about them or see an interview with drummer/ vocalist Penny Rimbaud I find lots to enjoy and think about. Rimbaud always comes across as a very sorted, intelligent and interesting man, a poet, philosopher, writer, and performer. There's plenty to be interested in too- the anarcho- punk world they created and lived in, the experimentation, the use of tape collages and spoken word along with their highly abrasive punk music, their insistence on independence in regard to their record releases, the DIY culture, the tabloid hoaxes and obscenity/ blasphemy court cases are all more than enough to be going on with. Their politics (pacifism, feminism, anti- consumerism) are all very contemporary. They split up in 1984 (as they had said they would), released their final record in 1986 and shut their label down in 1992.

They've had an afterlife in the 21st century. In 2002 Crass Collective were part of the anti- Iraq war movement and members appeared at an event at the South Bank. Steve Ignorant performed The Feeding Of The 5000 in 2007 with a band. The albums were re- issued in 2010. Some of these things caused arguments and ructions, splits between former members and objections to releases and gigs. In 2011 Ignorant and Rimbaud appeared on stage together for the last time, playing Do They Owe Us A Living, the group coming full circle back to the start. In 2019 the double album compilation Best Before 1984 was given away free via their website, a twenty song album with a subsequent forty song CD release. 

In the summer I saw Richard Norris in conversation with Dave Haslam, an event to launch Richard's book Strange Things Are Happening. Richard had recently been on a hiking holiday in Spain with Penny Rimbaud and while walking and chatting Richard asked Penny, a wise man if ever there is one to be found, what the meaning of life is. Penny replied, 'To serve'. 

These songs are all from the free download of Best Before 1984, a small selection of Crass, a band who in some ways seem very much tied to the late 70s punk world and the highly charged politics of punk, free festivals, CND and communes of the early 80s but who are also a constant presence out on the fringes of culture, a band and idea that refuses to die.

This is from the start, 1977, Penny Rimbaud and Steve Ignorant fired up by seeing The Clash and the anarchist commune in Essex they'd both arrived at, a song they wrote and recorded as a drums and vocal duo. 

'Do they owe us a living? Course they fucking do'

Do They Owe Us A Living

This one has found sounds of railways, pounding drums, tinny guitars, edge of the seat vocals and lyrical bite. 

Shaved Women

This is a 1982 song with tape recordings, news reports, audience noise, Thatcher- baiting spoken word and eventually blistering guitars, bass, drums and vocals.  

Sheep Farming In The Falklands

At the centre of Crass was a mass of contradictions. Aggressive, militant music to promote pacifism. Independent minded people wearing a uniform (black army surplus). Rimbaud telling audiences to 'make your own fucking minds up'. Dada and Situationism and gigs with no stage lights. Basic three chord punk played by people who listened to Benjamin Britten, free jazz and avant garde composers. 

This documentary about Crass from 2006 is good if you've got an hour to spare. The title of the film is also the title of this post, taken from the final lines on their 1983 album Yes Sir, I Will- 'You must learn to live with your own conscience, your own morality, your own decision, your own self. You alone can do it. There is no authority but yourself'.