How the fuck is any government going to make life better when everything is privatised?
On September 21, the Breaking Barriers festival will take place at Het Depot in Leuven, the annual festival that wants to remind you that punk is not dead. The festival first took place in 2016, to commemorate 40 years of punk. In 2024 it will continue to honor the pioneers of punk. Crass were the standard bearers of anarcho-punk, with a radical message of pacifism and anti-authoritarianism. In 2024, Crass no longer exists, but singer Steve Ignorant still plays the classics of the legendary band with his own musicians. You certainly don't want to miss this. Breaking Barriers organizer Malcolm Nix managed to ask Steve Ignorant some questions.
So, on the 21st of September, you’ll be headlining the Breaking Barriers festival at Het Depot with a set full of Crass songs, but you'll be doing so as the ‘Steve Ignorant Band’. Some people may already know the answer, but can you explain to the rest of the readers why this distinction is important?
It’s not the original line-up. What else would you call it? Can’t call it ‘Crass’. I didn’t want to call it the ‘Steve Ignorant Band’, but the rest of the band members insisted.
Who are the people in the Steve Ignorant Band? Did you select them based on their musical talent or do they all share the ideas the Crass songs are trying to get across?
I don’t mean to sit on the fence, but it’s both.
On keyboards and vocals is Carol Hodge, who is a brilliant vocalist and talented keyboard player. I knew her from when I was doing ‘The Last Supper tour’ in 2011, so we’ve been working together for years. Pete Wilson is a superb guitarist, who also performed with me at ‘The Last Supper tour’. Pete Rawlinson, on bass, is a fantastic musician who joined Slice Of Life in 2015. Jay Bagnall plays the drums, and has impeccable timekeeping. I first met him when I was working with Paranoid Visions in 2013.
They’ve all grown up with Crass and have a real connection and emotion with the songs. I got the best musicians I could. To be honest, though, if they weren’t the great musicians that they are, I’d still have them, because they are lovely people.
How about the other people who were part of Crass? Are some of them still active in the music scene or have they chosen other paths to follow?
The only people I still know from the original line-up are … Penny Rimbaud, who I wouldn’t say is still involved in the ‘music scene’, but he does spoken word, Jazz/avant-garde type of stuff and also a lot of music production. Gee Vaucher is still doing artwork and has had quite a few exhibitions around the world. She’s still very political, but don’t expect to see Crass-style covers. Eve Libertine still does vocals now and then for Penny and other projects. The others, I don’t know what they’re doing. I bumped into Mick Duffield, who is still doing his filmmaking or at least sound for film.
You’re obviously best known for your output as the lead singer for Crass, but you also perform as Slice of Life, with a completely different sound and arrangements. Does this difference in musical approach also mean there's a big difference in the subject matter you're tackling?
No, because although the songs I perform with Slice Of Life are more personal to me, they’re still dealing with issues I think are important to people. It’s not party politics, but they are political in the sense that, as you grow older, you realise you’re still treated like shit and it just gets harder. You also realise the world hasn’t moved on that much. I might be pre-empting some of the questions coming up, but that’s what it’s about, certainly for me, dealing with the aging process and mortality, because I’ve lived longer than I am going to. When that realisation hits you, it’s quite a shock.
Somebody did this awful thing to me recently, where they got out a tape measure and showed me how many years I’ve been here and how much longer I’ve got if I’m lucky. That really brought it home to me. I’ll also add I am dealing with mental health issues. I suffer from depression. I’m trying to put that across. I know a lot of artistic people, not necessarily in the music industry, but, for example, poets, painters or actors. A lot of us suffer from depression and that’s starting to be recognised in what we do. Depression is an illness that’s with us for life.
A lot of people still listen to Crass, but the songs were of course written in a certain context. The war in the Falklands is over, Margaret Thatcher is dead and the so-called Cold War didn’t actually end in a nuclear war. But which songs that you’ve written in those days are still 100% relevant today, because its specific context hasn’t actually changed a bit?
‘Do They Owe Us a Living’, ‘They’ve Got a Bomb’, because they have, and they are being used as we speak, and ‘Big A, Little A’… but definitely ‘Do They Owe Us a Living’, because they fucking do!
The predictions made by political analysts are often even less reliable than the slogans of political parties, but this time, it really looks like on the 4th of July, the Tories will get a serious kick in the backside. They won the previous elections with a large majority. What has changed? Why is almost literally everybody fed up with them now, as opposed to a few years ago?
Well, I’d be careful with that, because there are areas in East Anglia which are still very staunchly pro-Conservative, but hopefully they’ll take a hammering [1]. It’s obvious, isn’t it? They’re fucking useless. With the Conservatives, it’s still about the haves and have-nots. They were suggesting they’d start national service up again. I mean, for fuck’s sake: how to lose votes among young people! They’ve come up short on the National Health Service, people’s livelihoods, everything. Labour aren’t much different either. A lot of people in England are wondering who to vote for since they are all the same. You know that all politicians talk bullshit. They don’t come around my house, but if they come around knocking on your door, they’re as nice as pie. But the minute they get into office, they change and they will never be the same ever again, because they just toe the party line. Wankers, the lot of them.
We shouldn’t feel any pity or compassion for the conservatives, of course. If they lose the elections, they only have themselves to blame. But do you think a new government will improve the lives of people? Or is the answer simply that things can’t get any worse, so they can only get better?
How the fuck is any government going to make life better when everything is privatised? It’s getting harder and harder to speak to an actual human being. It’s all artificial intelligence, which is a fucking machine, so you get no choice. There was a thing in my local paper that a school was complaining that the kids didn’t have any computers and that it was necessary for them to have computers to learn to read and write. Kids, there’s no point crying, because life doesn’t get much better.
One of the main issues over here is, of course, the Brexit, which nobody in the EU wanted, but which happened nevertheless. Do you think a new government means the ties with the rest of the continent will improve?
You’d hope so, but I’m very doubtful. I hope so. I was just so upset when it happened. I was in Canada at the time. England played Iceland and lost. The barman where I was asked “What’s up with you English people?” I thought he was referring to the football, but he then said how we’d voted ‘Leave’ and I was like: “For fuck's sake”. Everyone I know was so sad. My wife Jona is Dutch. There was a small notice in my local paper that said that if you weren’t born in the UK, even if you’re married, you have to sign up and register to continue living here. The website crashed. There was no information about it. This was your fucking Brexit. Hopefully… but do I trust the government? Do I, fuck? Fingers crossed.
The previous question isn’t completely irrelevant for musicians, because the current immigration rules and border controls make it very hard for European bands to tour in the UK. Why does the government insist on such strict rules, knowing very well that these touring musicians aren’t trying to immigrate and really intend to go home after their tour?
Because they can. Give somebody a high-visibility jacket and he’ll turn into a dictator. Health and safety. “You can’t park here!” It's what they do.
The problem is, certainly in England, that anything to do with the arts is frowned upon, because in their eyes it’s not a proper job. What’s a proper job? Work in a factory? Well, they’re all closing down. Be a printer? The print works don’t exist anymore. It’s all done by computers. So, what the fuck? The arts venues and theatres, for example in Norwich, are struggling because there’s no money being put in, either by the local council or by the central government. Anything to do with the arts is frowned upon. But they just like to fuck people’s lives over. It’s cynical.
Not that playing in the UK is any easier for local bands. Why is it that the UK has produced and still produces some of the best music in the world, but treats its musicians like shit? Why can’t venues simply pay people a decent fee and provide decent hotel rooms, while this is perfectly possible in a lot of other European countries?
I think I’ve answered that, but a lot of people involved in the music industry here are also just out for the money and don’t give a shit. It’s like “Oh Steve Ignorant’s playing. Great! Put the price of beer up!” They don’t care. It does shock me when I go to play in Europe, for example in the Ancienne Belgique in Belgium and other places. The minute you walk in, you are offered a coffee and some food. Here in England, they’ll tell you the bar isn’t open yet and that your rider is on its way. Then there’s warm beer and a fridge that hardly works. The toilets might not have locks on the door and a missing seat. It still happens, but it doesn’t need to be like that. It’s embarrassing for me when I see bands come over from Europe who are used to higher standards at venues. Why do you think everybody here wants to play in America and Europe?
Finally, do you have any words of advice for young kids who have just started their own punk band? What's the main trap they have to avoid?
