Anarcho Punk emerged partly as a Nuclear Disarmament. Their media and punk media channels, despite reaction to the political polarisation of interruptions – incorporating records, the fact that their records were the growing UK punk movement, with books, films, events, concerts, printed blacklisted by many major record a direct connection to the underground publications and posters – employed retailers. Utilising a strategy of (low) counter-culture of the 1960s and a distinctive visual style and an overt maximum price details on the sleeves, early 1970s. Often employing explicit anarchist rhetoric, and paved the way visual devices centred on a heavy black visual and verbal attacks on the power for an entire sub-genre of Anarcho circle, the anarchist symbol, and fold- of the state and authority figures, Punk bands to follow. out posters, the group’s graphic output together with strong anti-war and / was designed to communicate strong or animal rights sentiments alongside Crass also had a strong influence political messages along with a sense an austere, monochrome, deliberately on the new age traveller movement, of authority, directness and a lack of lo-tech and raw design approach, having had direct connections to the what the group saw as superfluous Anarcho Punk records tended to follow earlier free festivals at Stonehenge, decorative or stylistic gestures. certain unspoken aesthetic rules, and their utopian visions of the future often directly influenced by the output coupled with an aggressive refusal to Crass’s visual work was self-produced, of scene leaders Crass, an anarchist cooperate with the mainstream saw with art direction credits going to Crass collective based just outside London them frequently in direct confrontation and G Sus (Gee Vaucher). Drummer in Epping forest. In the late 1970s, the with authority. A viral campaign based Penny Rimbaud had experience as a members of this loose-knit, strongly on word-of-mouth communications graphic designer, while Vaucher was an ideological group formed a punk band within the underground scene born accomplished commercial illustrator, to relay their politicised vision of punk out of the early punk networks saw most recently for the New York Times following the networks established by the band’s name and graphic identity magazine and Rolling Stone. The Rock Against Racism and a wide base stencilled on walls across the country group’s circular visual identity was of support for CND, the Campaign for and widespread recognition in fanzines originally designed for the frontispiece 2 3 of a self-published book by Rimbaud Crass had a strong influence on a range of political causes, from CND to entitled Christ’s Reality Asylum, number of other bands, and countless the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), some time before the formation of the young groups formed in their wake who as well as smaller local campaigns. group. Deisgned by Dave King, the shared their concerns about the threat Book and record stalls at venues symbol “...represented the various of nuclear war and the exploitation provided access to the underground forms of oppression that I’d discussed inherent within the capitalist system, and anarchist media, and gigs were in the book: family, church and state. though they sometimes expressed sometimes scheduled for afternoons Heraldic in quality, part national flag, this in less than convincing terms, without a bar licence in order to give part cross, part swastika, the circular both lyrically and graphically. Many admittance a younger audience – a design broke on its edges into two of the Crass collective were from an theme echoed in newly developing serpents’ heads, suggesting that the older, and more educated, background Anarcho Punk and Hardcore scenes power it represented was about to than their followers, and the inclusion in the USA and beyond. The Crass consume itself” according to Rimbaud. of substantial anarchist texts on Records label also released a series The symbol featured on the cover of the their record sleeves was mirrored by of budget-priced compilation albums, first Crass single, also entitledReality some (often rather inarticulate and entitled Bullshit Detector, showcasing Asylum. The first pressing of the record unsophisticated) copycat pieces by demo tapes sent in by largely unknown featured the design silkscreen printed younger bands. bands sympathetic to the cause. by the group themselves onto folded card covers with two-colour inlays, but Crass were well known to support It is possible to trace various lineages subsequently it was professionally litho underground Anarcho Punk networks within the development of Anarcho printed in black on a white newsprint – gigs were set up by local activists in Punk between the late 1970s and early background, in was to widely become small venues across the country, often 1990s, a series of evolutionary threads a graphic convention for the Anarcho outside of the regular live music circuit. from the liberal anarchism and peaceful Punk movement as a whole. Many of these events raised funds for a protest of Crass to the direct action 4 5 promoted by Conflict, and from punk movement had become. Later underground anarchist groups such Hardcore scene leaders Discharge’s developments saw a further reflection as Class War and activists within the initially confrontational and aggressive and critique of the way that Anarcho Animal Liberation Front. The Stop musical direction to the brutal noise Punk, in itself, had become stylised The City campaign, which involved structures of the 80s Thrash groups and had established invisible rules and mass rallies in central London to bring such as Extreme Noise Terror and Sore codes of conduct among its followers. the city to a halt, also had close ties Throat. As noted by punk musicologist Some second generation groups such to a number of interlinked anarchist Mike Dines, the lyrical introspection as Hagar the Womb and Rubella Ballet groups, and running battles with the and more overtly personal politics deliberately introduced colour into the authorities were commonplace. of songwriter Dick Lucas of the visual mix as a reaction against the Subhumans also emerged as a distinct graphic conventions of their forebears. During the early 1980s, a rift also theme in the development of Anarcho developed between those groups who Punk from the mid 1980s onwards. While Crass continued to offer a identified themselves with Anarcho A strong graphic identity, centred on subversive critique of the British Punk and the New Punk and Oi! Nick Lant’s dramatic illustrations, also government’s involvement in the bands championed by Garry Bushell played a part in establishing a powerful Falklands War and the threat of global in Sounds. Crass had included a song image for the group and led to the nuclear conflict, others such as Flux entitled Punk Is Dead on their debut development of parallel visual themes Of Pink Indians and Conflict took on release, The Feeding of the Five by others in the scene. radical positions regarding animal Thousand, in 1979, and Bushell had testing and the meat industry. Conflict taken it upon himself to criticise the The Anarcho Punk sub-genre evolved also encouraged a more proactive form group regularly within his reviews. as both a literal interpretation of the of resistance (and direct action) than The debut album by the Exploited, anarchist message of first wave punk, the peaceful protest put forward by Punk’s Not Dead (Secret 1981), bears and as a protest against what the the Crass camp, with strong links to a direct relationship to the Crass 6 7 title, and the group became standard- as Realities Of War, War’s No Fairy and lyrical styles to encompass a bearers for what was to be called the Tale, State Violence State Control, broad range of influences (including New Punk movement. The war of Two Monstrous Nuclear Stock Piles poetry, literature and spoken-word words between New Punk groups and and Protest And Survive provided a performance), Hardcore groups the Anarcho Punk bands even went so central manifesto for the group, and tended to retain the visual and verbal far as the trading of insults on vinyl: their lyrical and musical concerns were rhetoric of ‘anarchy’ allied to a brutal, Crass released a free flexidisc entitled adopted by a number of like-minded monotonous sound assault. Rival Tribal Rebel Revel, mimicking groups including the Varukers, the the stylised Cockney accent adopted by Skeptix and Broken Bones. Distinctions between these punk many Oi! groups, and exchanged words sub-genres weakened as what was to with Bushell in the music press and Discharge’s participation in the be generally called Hardcore evolved fanzine interviews. Apocalypse Now tour of 1981, worldwide – in the USA, scenes in alongside the Exploited, Anti Nowhere California, Washington DC and Boston A grey area also exists in the League, Anti Pasti and Chron Gen, saw acknowledged the influence of Anarcho distinction between Anarcho Punk them gain some level of critical and Punk alongside Oi! and New Punk and a number of groups who were commercial success, but also placed among other antecedents. A broadly more commonly labelled Hardcore, in them firmly in the New Punk camp anarchist and libertarian political particular Discharge, Chaos UK and by association. Whereas Anarcho vision ensued, with Anarcho Punk cited a number of others on Stoke’s Clay Punk groups including Crass, Conflict, as a key influence on the political, if not and Bristol’s Riot City labels. Much Poison Girls, Flux of Pink Indians, the musical, direction of the subculture in of Discharge’s early output between Mob and the Subhumans deliberately the 1990s and beyond. 1980-84 was concerned with the threat operated outside of the music press of nuclear war and included strong and standard performance venues, and Russ Bestley anti-militarist statements.