In the miserable 1970s, when many people had to make do with cashing a giro, cold porridge and a single-bar electric fire, The Fine Art Department at Leeds University encouraged its students to indulge in fierce debate. Right in the centre of a working-class northern city, the “fookin’ stewdents” lounged around in the Fenton pub, discussing Marxist theory and spending their grants on copious amounts of alcohol. The spirited arguments were often settled with a fight.
It was this environment that spawned The Mekons, Gang of Four and Delta 5. They thrived on friction, their music was a product of their ‘theory’ and their purpose was to be ‘ideologically sound’. They knew they were out of step with the people around them but they didn’t care if they were provocative.
The Mekons were a shambolic, loose collective based on the theory that anyone could do it. People wandered on and off stage. One gig descended into complete chaos, as opposed to routine chaos, because each band member had been given a different set list. They should never have made a record but they did and the NME loved them.
Delta 5 included Mekon girlfriends. Their songs depicted sour relationships delivered in a detached, superior manner. They were witty and were driven by two bassists but the audience was never sure if it in on the joke or the target of it.
Gang of Four were against almost everything. They thought personal songs were suspect, they were anti warmth in the music. They were a democracy, so each instrument had to be given equal weight in the mix. Their bass player was actually quite skilful and had been employed as a session musician. The band instructed him to play far fewer notes. The rhythm as lead guitar, inspired by Dr Feelgood, was a terrible distortion of funk, spitting shards of noise. They rejected solos, sometimes choosing simply to pause instead. Lyrically, they likened a love affair to a beetle on its back or a terrible disease affecting the brain. They saw marriage as a commercial transaction.
These were bands looking for an argument. For them, everything was political. The audience were as much part of the problem as part of the solution.
Their early singles defined them; Gang of Four’s Damaged Goods, The Mekons Where Were You? and Delta 5’s You. Many fans felt let down when Gang of Four signed for EMI. They wanted to reach a wider audience (to prove it wasn’t the money, they paid the roadies double the band members). FWIW, I disagreed with them. I just preferred the sound of the single on Fast Product. It had a raw physicality none of their subsequent records ever matched.
Is there any music you disagree with?
As you ponder, enjoy the Damaged Goods B side, Love Like Anthrax, which is quite different to the version re-recorded for the EMI album, Entertainment!
(Most facts in this post originate are from Simon Reynolds book, Rip It Up And Start Again. I’ve misplaced my copy, so I haven’t been able to check. I hope everything is accurate.)
Cashing a gyro? Taking a mechanical gizmo down to the pawnbroker’s? Crikey, the past really is a foreign country…. Enlightenment-era Paris, apparently.
Thank you. Duly corrected. F-ing spellcheck!
Without wishing to alarm you Tigs, I’m off now to form an anarcho-folktronica band called Foucault’s Giro. Feel free to “prefer the early demos” in advance.
Love the GoF, by the way. Antsy stutter-funk plus humourless Chomskians = party on, Wayne! To Hell With Poverty has one of the greatest intros ever.
*attempts to whistle it…. hurts mouth*
Unbelievably, Gang of Four are often held responsible for making dance music cool again. Disco was seen as deeply uncool at the time. Entertainment! crossed the pond and was played repeatedly at parties attended by The B-52s, who, in turn, brought the joy of dancing to the clubs in New York. Soon Kid Creole was hot.
With that in mind, here is To Hell With Poverty, cut short at the end of OGWT. Take note of the cool dancing.
Oh dear, that wasn’t far short of Bernard’s “rave” dancing on ToTP when New Order were on with Fine Time. I don’t want to see that again.
A lot of bands are better heard and not seen, notwithstanding the drummer’s natty braces.
New Order quite cheerfully admitted that white men shouldn’t dance, unless they have taken ecstasy and then they have to hope no-one remembers seeing them.
The Gof4 drummer Hugo later appeared on TOTP behind Samantha Fox. He’s also a big Stackridge you know.
There appears to be something wrong with my computer. Her lips are moving but they aren’t emitting those words. Nice gnashers, though.
Here’s Delta 5 performing Anticipation on TOTP in 1981, by which time they had discarded their boiler suits & glammed up.
Over the years – due to being a birrova lefty – I have often been around what could be termed “Art-school anarchism” and it really annoys me. The importance of art is undeniable but a challenging installation at the ICA is only interesting to a few people. Most people know this, but there is a significant Paul Morely-type presence out there that believes otherwise.
There’s that toe-curling Rik-like assumption that if they formed a band or write poetry, that the kids would be into it.
So GOF and Crass left me cold, even though I agreed with much of what they are saying. In theory, I should love them. I thought their music was awful.
The Jam were more like it – Going Underground and Eton Rifles were good angry songs. They attracted the mainstream too, which probably meant they “sold out”. Some of the shouty tuneless anarcho bands declared that they would never appear on Top of the Pops – which is a bit like me making myself unavailable for selection into the England football team.
GoF missed their TOTP moment. They were booked to perform At Home He’s A Tourist. The BBC asked them to change the word ‘rubbers’ (as in condoms) to ‘rubbish’. As ever, they discussed it as a collective and refused. Who knows what would have followed if they’d had a top ten hit.
I remember The Jam being labelled as ‘Tory’. I think there was an interview in which Weller decided to be controversial. Most of my leftie mates stuck to The Clash after that (especially when Elvis Costello blotted his right-on copybook). They were renewed with a more general fervour by Two Tone.
Yes, The Clash never did TOTP – but Strummer appeared in the Mid-90s for a football song with Shaun Ryder and others (“England’s Irie?”).
Unless I was hallucinating, Legs & Co performed to Bank Robber. In stripy tops with bags marked ‘swag’, probably. Oh hang on, it appears it was real.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhv2lhGZsNU
Crass at my grammar school were the epitome of the status-symbol anarchist displayed by the future doctors and lawyers of the world. Their logo looked great on your bag and carrying a copy of Feeding of the 5000 showed everyone how extreme they were. However I can forgive them the fact their music was mainly awful for this awesome situationist stunt, as Wikipedia reminds us when their third lp came out :
The last track on Penis Envy, a parody of an MOR love song entitled “Our Wedding”, was made available as a white flexi disc to readers of Loving, a teenage romance magazine. Crass tricked the magazine into offering the disc, posing as “Creative Recording And Sound Services”. Loving accepted the offer, telling their readers that the free Crass flexi would make “your wedding day just that bit extra special”.[46] A tabloid controversy resulted when the hoax was exposed, with the News of the World stating that the title of the flexi’s originating album was “too obscene to print”.[47] Despite Loving ’s annoyance, Crass had broken no laws.
I’m pretty sure we must have gone to the same school; mine too was awash with army-surplus rucksacks, their flaps rigid with the gloss-painted logos of Crass and Co.
I remember vividly a day when in oh let’s say the fourth form a sixth former grabbed my NME and calmly took out the centrepage article which was on crass, returning it to me sans article and leaving me milksop bands like Echo and The Bunnymen to read about.
I wondered if there were any other Legs and Co routines that seemed out of place and found this. But it is actually the brilliant “Supernature” by Cerrone, which I haven’t heard for years. Also -I didn’t know this – it was written by Lene Lovich.
http://youtu.be/x7lIlZcCS3U
There’s an idea for a thread that should run. Favourite Legs & Co Routines.
I enjoyed that one, by the way.
I recently said that Flick Colby should have revamped the state opening of Parliament. Bizarrely, nobody took any notice.
There’s an entire site for that (it turns out, he added hastily):
http://www.oneforthedads.org.uk/
Did somebody say something? I’m sorry but my mind is boggled.
Lyrics only to be clear. Marc Cerrone is in possession of the title ‘Reclusive Eurodisco genius’
Au Pairs belong here. They were no-bullshit young women, perfectly capable of fighting their own battles. Their sexual demands were matter-of-fact and, therefore, quite thrilling to a lefty callow youth like me.
Come Again
Yes, good call, tigger. The Au Pairs certainly were a formidable, uncompromising outfit who didn’t mince words about their politics. But weren’t only two out of the four of them women? I seem to remember there were two blokes in the band, too.
Maybe. When I saw them live, I didn’t notice the blokes. I wonder why.
You’re right. I saw them several times live – definitely 50/50 on the gender front
Were you at The Festival Suite in Birmingham in 1979, Ainsley?
My second gig ever was the Beat supported by the Au Pairs in Leeds. Still one of the best I ever saw.
They were gender balanced which in a way was just as political as being all woman. Their slogan “you’re equal but different – it’s obvious” still strikes me as the best political insight I’ve heard from a band.
And weren’t The Beat absolutely wonderful live? I followed them around The Midlands watching them half a dozen times on the same tour. Just love Ranking Roger & Saxa!
I am loving this thread, as you can tell. but the best track of this era – blending Northern Soul and motown with the SWP – is surely this, here in its full 12″ glory. Neither Washington… is a quite brilliant album.
Great track- you led me to play this, (my personal favourite of theirs), so thanks:
Actually no, this is better. Just fantastic.
Great album.
Chris Dean has to be one of the most spectacular disappearing acts ever. I don’t think anyone knows what happened to him. Perhaps he…. grew some hair or something.
Interesting how most of the bands discussed here – Au Pairs, Redskins, Crass, GOF, Delta 5 etc failed to make it past a couple of albums. I think they came just before a time you could sustain a long-term career on indies, and of course being politically motivated and left-wing a split in the group was always just around the corner. The Jam and The Clash, mentioned here, were far less ideological – majoring in protest rather than political theory – and already signed to majors.
I hate to be a pedant – no I don’t really, I love it – but Go4 made 4 albums before they split after 1983’s Hard, their attempt at commercial dance music. It proved to be career suicide, though I loved it.
but the broad thrust of the arguement?
Agreed, although not the only bands to fizzle out after a couple of great LPs.
Why is it that only the left that produce pop songs about politics? Given how many people vote Conservative, where are the equivalent songs from the other side? I don’t mean nutcases like Combat 18….I am wondering why there isn’t a right-wing equivalent of Billy Bragg, writing songs about how privatisation of the NHS isn’t such a bad idea? Or that maybe the unions are too powerful? Was that Strawbs song Part of the Union anti-union?
Gang of Four arch enemies at the time were the Oi bands. Do they count?
I always felt MoR was deeply conservative. In 1978, that would have included Paul MCartney.
Cat among pigeons time…Conservative Top 50!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/25/arts/music/25brockweb.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&
“Heroes” isn’t remotely right wing compared to, say, Quicksand, Station To Station or the whole of The Man Who Sold The World album.
Yeah…I have no particular opinion on the article or the views expressed (only skimmed it) but I think a lot of music is a lot more conservative (however you want to define that) than one might think.
I haven’t thought this through at all though; I’m sure I will have to massively climb down and/or have a few more nuanced thoughts at some stage when I have the energy. 🙂
Being ‘cool’ in the UK has certainly since the sixties been associated with being left-wing (hence the regular airing of a 16-yr old Hague at the tory conference) and the Tory party characterised as one of right-wing fuddy duddies. Oi was almost the only example of a youth-based overtly right-wing media movement. Otherwise, we see musicians growing into their right-wing opinions as age and wealth accumulate – Phil Collins’ taxes, Tony Hadley’s PPC ambitions. But they understand that youth = revolt = sales, and fewer people want to hear about the trials of second home commutes or non-dom tax arrangements.
It’s not like that in the US. Popular patriotism and anti-government libertarianism have been a marketable image for musicians for decades. Kid Rock draped in the Stars and Stripes comes over very differently from Morrissey in the Union Jack. There is a right-wing media that dominates US news and views ‘between the coasts’ and two parties that come over as fusty and uncool as each other. Obama the candidate excepted.
One final observation, the Labour Party has turned itself through a generation of SPADs and geeks into a party every bit as uncool as the Tories. Can you imagine the equivalent of Red Wedge in this election?
The politics/music energy is in politics outside the ‘big two’ – from the greens to Scottish Nationalism.
Being in any way political hasn’t been cool in the UK for a very long time… not since the end of the 80s. People just gave up. For the left it’s probably been forgotten what a blow the 1992 election was (though arguably not as big a blow as having the incompetent blowhard Kinnock in charge of a probably very short-lived government). The nearest young people got to being political in the 90s was Swampy at the like – smoking dope, hugging trees, signing on…. not exactly 1789, was it?
Funny you should mention Tony Hadley – the political fissures of the 80s ran right down the middle of that band. The Kemp brothers played the Red Wedge tour.
How about this?
The Spokesmen with their “answer song” to Barry Maguire’s “Eve Of Destruction”…
I give you “The Dawn Of Correction”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkGZKOgfOi4
In the US at least, the right tend to go for the spoken word thing, like “Letter To My Teenage Son” and “The Americans”…perhaps it eliminates the need to worry about rhyming lines and eliminates ambiguity in the lines expressed.
True. This, for example, can be interpreted in a myriad of ways
My favourite “message” band, and a song that rocked my world the first time I ever heard it.
Minor Threat weren’t as directly “political” as most of the acts mentioned above, but their overriding credo (essentially “fuck self destruction”) was far, far more revolutionary.
Gorgeous piece of jazzy reggae but I always found Racist Friend by The Special AKA a bit unhelpful at the time. The sentiment is obviously noble and lovely. Racism sucks. We get that.
Dammers is ordering us to ostracise our loved ones if they might be a bit ignorant or fearful. Send them to Coventry, as it were. Ho ho.
As a suburban teenager in the late 70s, I was probably ‘a bit racist’ before I got into 2Tone. Along with XTC, Costello, UB40, the 2Tone ethos completely moulded my point of view on a lot of things, especially race. They didn’t wag their fingers, they didn’t disown me, they educated me.
I like to think in turn, I have enlightened certain family members and friends who were ‘a bit racist’
without resorting to what Jerry was asking. Having said that, I did ditch a couple of fellow skinhead mates back in 1984, but they had become out and out Nazis. That I had no problem doing
“Racist Friend”
If you have a racist friend
Now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end
Be it your sister
Be it your brother
Be it your cousin or your, uncle or your lover
If you have a racist friend
now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end
Be it your best friend
Or any other
Is it your husband or your father or your mother?
Tell them to change their views
Or change their friends
Now is the time, now is the time, for your friendship to end
So if you know a racist who thinks he is your friend
Now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end
Call yourself my friend?
Now is the time to make up your mind, don’t try to pretend
Be it your sister
Be it your brother
Be it your cousin or your uncle or your lover
So if you are a racist
Our friendship has got to end
And if your friends are racists don’t pretend to be my friend
So if you have a racist friend
Now is the time, now is the time for our friendship to end
Goodbye
I can forgive The Specials almost anything. To be fair, they do say “Tell them to change their views or change their friends.” That’s reasonable enough, isn’t it?
Not really. Dammers being his usual dictatorial self to this day,
Fair enough.
how could a thread on Leeds political theorist/agit proppers leave Garth Greenside out? The story of the eighties is writ large in the journey from Skank Blog Bologna to Wood Beez. Listening to Early and it is excellent.
Only one Billy Bragg, there’s only one Billy.
Don’t see many of the artistes above keeping on keeping on.
Leeds?/Bradford? Anarcho-lefty politics? Dance?
Did you think I wouldn’t notice?
Arguing with that lot is hopeless. No matter how often you knock ’em down….
Six years of my life has just drifted ahead of my mind’s eye. The “Oxfam Orwells” of university hastened my retreat from socialism, as I couldn’t put up with their posturing and lefter-than-thou crap. This merged – Oh Manchester, so much to answer for – with Paul Morley making Delueze and Guattari a big thing in the NME, and rather too much post-modern wanking and wankers pushing the most impracticable forms of socialism, and being clever enough to realise that if it’s post-modern, it can be post-leftist politics, too. That said, the student music of 1980 to 1984 was pretty good, and the best of the artists knew to move on to pure pop for now people, viz. Scritti Politi.
I never understood a single Paul Morley article. I do know he rated Another Green World highly at a time when few others did. I’d give him a pass for that and a distinction for championing Ze Records.
Latin America was the key student union socialist battleground, the Sandanistas and so on. So there was ‘socialist jazz-funk’ of which Everything But The Girls’ debut is tinged by, and this corker was the real deal – includes Tracey Thorn and Robert Wyatt (father figure to all this of course with Stalin Wasn’t Stalling etc,)
Wow! I haven’t heard that before & I perceived myself as a bit of a Wyatt expert.. It’s wonderful.
Stalin Wasn’t Stalling was a cover of a wartime propaganda song, wasn’t it? Written during the brief period was Uncle Joe was seen as an OK bloke for walloping the Jerries.
Some serious crate-digging by Wyatt there (as opposed to grave-digging by Stalin)
Can’t believe we’re this far down the thread before Robert Wyatt gets a mention…
One Robert Wyatt.
There’s Only One Robert Wyyyyy-att.
Lots of old favourites on this thread. Here’s another: the magnificent Latin Quarter. On Top of the (Agit)Props.
The song is Radio Africa.
I studied late 19th / early 20th century Russian history at school, including the reasons for and events leading up the Bolshevik revolution. I can guarantee you that nowhere did I come across anything that supported Boney M’s assertion that Rasputin was “Russia’s greatest love machine”.
Further, there is no evidence that Jesus Christ was born on Christmas Day. And frankly, I found their analysis of The Troubles in NI to be, at best, simplistic and reductive.
And I don’t believe any of them lay down by the rivers of Babylon. As for a brown girl in the ring. It all sounds implausible to me.
Rumpole – For the benefit of the jury, can you describe the appearance of the brown girl in the ring?
Boney M – Well…she looks like a sugar in a plum. Plum-plum!
I think The Pop Group shouldn’t be overlooked. They may have been the hardest to listen to, what with the screaming and the random percussion, but I dn’t think there is any doubt they were political.
We Are Time
How can there be a thread on politically motivated music and politically committed musicians without….Henry Cow?
*Cough*
How about early U2?
Sunday Bloody Sunday
I think I got away with that one. I don’t think anyone noticed.
I did!
it’s the bar of Leeds Uni circa 1981
Assorted members of Mekons/Delta 5/GOF: Mr Bono great to finally meet you. So do you come at the coming crisis in Western Capitalism from a strictly socialist perspective, or do you think that Derrida and Deleuze have rendered traditional modes of revolutionary thought outmoded and an entirely new paradigm is needed?
Bono: Errr….this is not a rebel song! This is Sunday Bloody Sunday.
I would like to mention The Ex. They are still around and found ways to stay interesting, for instance by their interest in Ethopian music.
I enjoyed that, thanks, Campo.
All these groups seem interested in percussion and a bouncing bass-line. Good to see The Ex deploying the irresistible funk of the cow-bell!
At time ‘rockism’ was a thing. Moving on from punks instinctive rejection of long hair, wibbly guitar solos and 20-minute song suites ‘rockism’ rejected pretty much the same stuff from a more ideological standpoint, and definitely favoured funk-influenced sounds over, let’s say, Bad Company.