For the last three years Overground Records in the
UK have released 4 highly successful well packaged
and meticulously researched Anarcho-Punk
Compilation CD's. Featuring bands from across the
whole protest spectrum from Anti-Sect to Zounds.
The man behind the whole project who researched,
compiled the tracks and wrote the extensive
sleevenotes is ex Psycho Faction singer Sean
McGhee. With the final release hitting the streets this
month here he talks to Ged Babey about how it come
to be.
QUESTION AND ANSWER: SEAN MCGHEE compiler
of the Anarcho Punk Collections
You've spent three years compiling these albums, didn't
you get sick of listening to the hundreds of similar-
sounding tapes and yearn for something with a tune?
What has surprised me most of all is the diversity and
quality of a genre that many learned observers have
described as 'tuneless hectoring'. The roots of thrash
metal, acoustic punk pop and the new breed of political
singer-songwriters can all be traced back to the
Anarcho punk scene.
Anarcho has become very collectible, what's the most
highly sought after/expensive vinyl you've come across?
That's the Crass 'Our Wedding' flexi, (£200+) but
anything in mint condition is highly sought after, as
few copies seem to have survived in perfect condition.
Out of the hundred odd bands on the four compilations
who are your personal favourites and why?
It's hard to single out favourites as there's so much
great stuff featured on the four CDs. Personally the
historically interesting tracks from the likes of Crass
and Atomic Filth (who would become Icons Of Filth)
that along with over 50% of the material on the Anarcho
punk CD series has never been released in any shape or
form below.
There seems to be a lot of interest in Anarcho-punk
from young American punk-fans, what do you think the
appeal is for them.
That the scene never sold-out and is still considered
"underground" where so many others alternative scenes
get absorbed into the mainstream and that the political
issues of the day are still relevant now. The myspace
site www.myspace.com/anarchopunkcdseries that I set up
has thousands of young Anarcho punk obsessed kids
visiting.
Were Crass as influential as the Beatles?
Different bands different eras. But Crass at the end of
the 70s/early 80s certainly meant a lot more to myself
and many other disillusioned, unemployed and pissed off
young punk rockers than any band from the past. What
Crass inspired can still be seen in many of the current
punk bands, the political and art cutting edge and the
worldwide protest movement.
(Ged Babey)
www.myspace.com/anarchopunkcdseries
www.overgroundrecords.co.uk
UK have released 4 highly successful well packaged
and meticulously researched Anarcho-Punk
Compilation CD's. Featuring bands from across the
whole protest spectrum from Anti-Sect to Zounds.
The man behind the whole project who researched,
compiled the tracks and wrote the extensive
sleevenotes is ex Psycho Faction singer Sean
McGhee. With the final release hitting the streets this
month here he talks to Ged Babey about how it come
to be.
QUESTION AND ANSWER: SEAN MCGHEE compiler
of the Anarcho Punk Collections
You've spent three years compiling these albums, didn't
you get sick of listening to the hundreds of similar-
sounding tapes and yearn for something with a tune?
What has surprised me most of all is the diversity and
quality of a genre that many learned observers have
described as 'tuneless hectoring'. The roots of thrash
metal, acoustic punk pop and the new breed of political
singer-songwriters can all be traced back to the
Anarcho punk scene.
Anarcho has become very collectible, what's the most
highly sought after/expensive vinyl you've come across?
That's the Crass 'Our Wedding' flexi, (£200+) but
anything in mint condition is highly sought after, as
few copies seem to have survived in perfect condition.
Out of the hundred odd bands on the four compilations
who are your personal favourites and why?
It's hard to single out favourites as there's so much
great stuff featured on the four CDs. Personally the
historically interesting tracks from the likes of Crass
and Atomic Filth (who would become Icons Of Filth)
that along with over 50% of the material on the Anarcho
punk CD series has never been released in any shape or
form below.
There seems to be a lot of interest in Anarcho-punk
from young American punk-fans, what do you think the
appeal is for them.
That the scene never sold-out and is still considered
"underground" where so many others alternative scenes
get absorbed into the mainstream and that the political
issues of the day are still relevant now. The myspace
site www.myspace.com/anarchopunkcdseries that I set up
has thousands of young Anarcho punk obsessed kids
visiting.
Were Crass as influential as the Beatles?
Different bands different eras. But Crass at the end of
the 70s/early 80s certainly meant a lot more to myself
and many other disillusioned, unemployed and pissed off
young punk rockers than any band from the past. What
Crass inspired can still be seen in many of the current
punk bands, the political and art cutting edge and the
worldwide protest movement.
(Ged Babey)
www.myspace.com/anarchopunkcdseries
www.overgroundrecords.co.uk
| CD REVIEW VARIOUS ARTISTS ANTI-CAPITALISM - Anarcho-Punk Compilation Volume 4. * * * * Overground (OVER IIIVP) CD Last in the series, starring Crass, Conflict & Cultureshock Unreleased versions of Mighty And Superior and What Do You Want? by brand leaders Conflict and Crass respectively are just two of the reasons for this being a highly desirable collection. A track by Living Legends, a band who at various times featured Ian Bone of Class War infamy and comedian Keith Allen, is another bonus. The sleeve notes and twenty-three potted band histories are, as usual with this series, engrossing reading and give Chumbawambas' Danbert a chance to explain why and what happened since they signed to a (hack-puut!) major label. Penny Rimbauds sleeve essay lambasts the media for creating the sub-genre 'anarcho-punk' in order to marginalize and exclude such bands and write them out of pop history. Admirably though these bands didn't want fame and fortune, they wanted to protest and survive. Defining themselves by being anti-this and against-that, when perhaps they should have been pro-this and for-that, still, this is an important history, the wonderful Dada-ist punks the Cravats appear due to the fact they recorded a single on Crass, Dik 'Subhumans' Lucas, Cultureshock contribute a standout track, inventing ska-punk. Anarka and Poppy should have been Top 40 stars and then there's the Epileptics, Antisect. (Ged Babey) |
