UK Decay

[sean]

THE FEEDING OF THE 5000
Saturday November 24th & Sunday November 25th 2007
Shepherds Bush Empire, Shepherds Bush Green, London W12 8TT
www.shepherds-bush-empire.co.uk
Box Office 020 8354 3300/24hr Ticket Sales 0870 771 2000
Doors: 7.00pm – 11.00pm
Ticket Price: £17.50 per day £30.00 Weekend Ticket

STEVE IGNORANT vocalist and founder member of the groundbreaking radical anarcho-punk band CRASS will take the stage in London in November this year for a very special event.
CRASS’s seminal ‘Feeding Of The 5000’ will be performed in its entirety alongside other selected CRASS material by Steve Ignorant and selected guests.
CRASS as a band ended in 1984, and will never reform. CRASS formed in 1977, and over the next seven years performed, agitated, radicalized the UK punk scene and released some of the most intense and incendiary protest punk ever recorded. Along the way they inspired thousands throughout the UK and the wider world to actively question the society they lived in. Today they are regarded by many as the most important punk band ever.
With a recent book about the band, and another two in production, the story of CRASS and what they meant to a multitude of disenfranchised youth back in the late 70s and early 80s is only now coming to the fore.
CRASS articulated arguably the most radical manifestation of the punk aesthetic, mobilising tens of thousands of youth in Britain and around the world and giving practical expression to the punk imperatives of 'do-it yourself' activity and sub-cultural autonomy. Anarcho-punks (those punks radicalized by the work of CRASS) swelled the ranks of the radical wing of the peace, disarmament and animal liberation movements of the 80s; re-energised and reinvigorated the British anarchist milieu; and provided an unanswerable critique of the recuperation and evaporation of mainstream punk rock.
CRASS’S uncompromising anarchist propaganda led to numerous prosecutions;the seizure of many of the band's most 'subversive' record releases;'questions in the House' about the group's 'scurrilous' and 'wicked' anti-Falklands War single; and to political stunts that duped both the CIA and the KGB.
The weekend brings together a host of the principal acts that helped create the anarcho-punk scene via their incendiary live shows, uncompromising attitude and militant stance.
Appearing for the first time in over two decades are FLUX OF PINK INDIANS who took the punk scene by storm with the forceful and compelling ‘Tube Disaster’ EP and their genre defining ‘Strive To Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible’ album.
Also appearing are CONFLICT, who to this day remain one of the most controversial punk bands, ever. Their first EP ‘The House That Man Built’, was released on the CRASS label in 1980 to their latest offering, ‘There is No Power Without Control’, they have always epitomized what punk was always meant to be - emotional, angry but most importantly, intelligent.
Also performing over the weekend are the Norwich based anarcho-punk act THE DISRUPTERS who return to the stage after a break of close on 20 years. ZOUNDS the hugely influential three piece punk act that paved the way for all the later bands to appear on Crass records with their 1980 EP ‘Can’t Cheat Karma’ are also reforming especially to appear over the weekend.
Add to this already hugely impressive one-off line-up anarcho and punk heavyweights DEVIATED INSTINCT and THE RESTARTS makes ‘The Feeding Of The 5000’ the most impressive gathering of anarcho acts ever assembled.

For all press enquiries and interview requests:
Louise Kovacs louise@academy-music-group.co.uk
Sean McGhee sean.mcg1@btinternet.com

[Christus]

That makes me really wish I liked in the UK...