I always thought Crass were a bit after punk proper, but they started off in '77 but were very underground at that stage and made no attempt to be commercial, like virtually all the other bands around at that time. While I found much of their stuff unlistenable, this was a rare venture into melody and structure by their standards and I loved it. Withe advent of Reagan and Thatcher, at the height of the cold war, with the nuclear clock minutes from midnight and ticking it was a pretty powerful statement. I'd already had some exposure to anarchist ideals, having met a girl of Irish extraction in Bradford Backstage one evening in around 78 and been introduced to such ideals by her brother. At the same time I was working for the Geological survey where such ideas were openly entertained and discussed.
After the first wave of punk's flirtation with Anarchy as an ideal, Crass took it the whole hog and that made them interesting to me. Much of the Crass label and subsequent One Little Indian label stuff, while espousing great and lofty ideals was painful to listen to - the previous mentioned Vi Subversa and her Poison Girls, Annie Anxiety, Flux of Pink Indians while interesting and idealistic, musically were never my cup of tea.
Crass were pretty influential and gave rise to a number of later bands such as Tools You Can Trust and Chumbawamba, even the Levellers all of whom espoused similar ideals, being overtly political and 'off grid'.
These were heady days politically (late 70's early 80's) - there was great political music around - bands like the Gang of Four, Mekons, Au-Pairs (who were acemans and super melodic) and even the Thompson Twins (yes, them - they started off as a kind of political anarchist collective of around 9 or 10 ever changing members, toured the Winter Cruise etc, their second single was even called Politics) were all saying a lot with varying degrees of success. Then Thatcher arrived and clamped down on all forms of dissent. Crass and their gang, who were on the edge of the indie charts, were the real deal. They disappeared from the edges of the mainstream but their label kept going, and their set up for sure laid the foundations for the anarcho rave scene almost 10 years later.
Good choice Trav. And thank fuck you didn't pick country music, a genre I despise like no other.
