CRASS

The granddaddies of ‘em all… the line in the sand… the band that demanded, ‘Do they think guitars and microphones are just fucking toys?’ Almost every band in my book about anarcho punk [‘The Day The Country Died’, Cherry Red Books… sorry, shameless plug, I know!] cited Crass as their primary influence… and with good reason – they blew the public’s preconceptions about punk rock into next week and made the scene relevant again. 1979’s ‘Feeding Of The 5000’ or 1980’s ‘Stations Of The Crass’ are probably their defining moments, wonderfully potent distillations of red raw indignation, outrageously harsh guitar tones, furious pseudo-military drumming, and Steve Ignorant’s irascible Cockney sneer spitting uncomfortable truths over the whole glorious racket… ‘Do they owe us a living? Of course they fuckin’ do!’

POISON GIRLS

 For several years, Poison Girls, led by the inimitable Vi Subversa, were Crass’s touring partners; although musically they were more diverse and ambitious, Vi pulled few punches with her lyrics, making many a closet-sexist punk rocker chew guiltily at his fingernails! Although many will remember them for ‘Persons Unknown’, the pounding call to arms that backed Crass’s ‘Bloody Revolutions’ single, their 1980 album ‘Chappaquiddick Bridge’ proved that Poison Girls weren’t content to be musically restrained by the increasingly rigid confines of the punk scene.

CONFLICT

The first anarcho punk band to really concentrate – militantly, at that – on the animal rights issue, Eltham’s Conflict were (and still are) as lyrically confrontational as they were musically. A wall of aggressive noise hitting you at 80 mph, their studio output has never quite captured their intense live power, but the debut album, ‘Time To See Who’s Who’ (1983), and the studio side of ‘Increase The Pressure’ (1984), are real classics of the genre, combining street punk aggro with anarcho punk savvy.

SUBHUMANS

Surely this lot were too much fun to be an anarcho band, but a quick read of Dick’s lyrics, and you’ll see they combine upbeat tunes with articulate and intelligent ideals… and you won’t find a better live punk band on the circuit anywhere in the world – they never disappoint! Because they’re so consistent, it’s hard to elect a recorded highlight, but most would cite their brilliant 1982 debut, ‘The Day The Country Died’ (good name for a book too!), as their defining moment, with the sublimely brilliant ‘Worlds Apart’ coming a close second… ‘Internal Riot’, their brand new studio album, is pretty damn good, mind you…

THE MOB

Creative giants amongst men, The Mob moved through the anarcho punk scene with a supreme grace, rising above the hordes of angry thrashers to craft beautifully structured epics like ‘No Doves Fly Here’ (1982) and darkly brooding masterpieces like ‘Witch Hunt’ (1980). A quiet voice in the big scheme of things, but one that has resonated through the years because of the innocent passion it encompassed… check out their 1983 album, ‘Let The Tribe Increase’, and then tell me I’m getting all melodramatic over nothing!

ICONS OF FILTH

Their sadly-deceased singer Stig was quite possibly the greatest punk lyricist of the Eighties (Nineties and Noughties, come to think of it), and the band matched his lyrical intensity with some truly raging walls of dissonant noise. Their debut album, ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’, released in 1984 and riddled with Orwellian overtones, is their most memorable work, where everything – music, lyrics, delivery and artwork – all came together as an undeniably jaw-dropping whole, although their early singles and their brilliant comeback album, ‘Nostradamnedus’ (2002), are all worthy of investigation too.

ANTISECT

One of the heaviest and gnarliest of all the anarcho bands, Antisect burned for such a brief time; they foisted one awesome album – 1984’s brutally focused ‘In Darkness There Is No Choice’ – and one overtly metallic single on us, and then were gone, before they could deliver their hugely anticipated sophomore album. Not to worry, at least they self-destructed at the peak of their formidable powers, and didn’t get chance to sully our memories of their incendiary live performances.