ITEM OVERVIEW
Ian Glasper (a mean bassist in his own right in the late 80s) has done it again. Following on the heels of the mighty Burning Britain he turned his considerable skills as an oral historian to the glory days of UK anarcho punk. He painstakingly interviewed a couple of hundred of the UK's finest from those heady days, and largely lets them speak for themselves. With a chapter on each band, this weaves a glorious oral history of the music and musicians that revolutionized a generation, for better or worse! Lots of the names are familiar, of course: Crass, Poison Girls, Conflict, Subhumans, Flux Of Pink Indians, Rudimentary Peni, Dirt, The Mob, Zounds, Omega Tribe, Antisect, Icons Of Filth, Chumbawamba. But part of the beauty is the resuscitation of dozens of the little-known and unsung backbone of this musical and political phenomenon: The System, Metro Youth, Anthrax, Anarka & Poppy, Kulturkampf et al. There's even an embarrassing picture of a then youthful AK Press collective member withing the pages. Despite such occasional blemishes, this is a fantastic, gloriously illustrated document of a time, music, and politics, which still resonates today.
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