Steve Ignorant

I watched that Crass documentary, and it seems to me that Ignorant has become the people that he once railed against. When we first see him, he's shaven headed, drunk, and shouting at a football match on the telly...yeh, that's working class, but it has so many right wing connotations and the like that it feels a little uncomfortable.

I think his politics have changed, and that he wants to make money off the back of his Crass association.

 

i think he can do what he wants. people are just mad cause they looked up to the guy maybe.

 

honestly it was bound to happen.

at some point, there is at least one person in every group that decides to be a sellout.

but it does suck.

 

I've always thought that Stig from Icons Of Filth was better. In my opinion Icons > Crass

 

i think penny summed it up nicely when talking about mr ignorant doing the "feeding" gig. he said he didn't like steve doing it, none of the collective really did, but he respected his right to. and i heard most of CRASS went to the show to watch.

i think it's a shame that punks build these people up into something they're not. infallible super-humans or something. they're not. they're just folks.

people might call mr biafra or mr ignorant sellouts or whatever, but if they took a shine to your band and wanted to record with you what would you do then? i'd probably laugh and say "my band's way better than yours ever was, but you can buy me a beer"... but seriously, whatever, who cares. i still love DEAD KENNEDYS and CRASS and all that jazz, and very little they do now will ever change the place their music has in my heart, and how it helped me with my life.

 

"Exploitation Of The Beer Bellied Rebel"

I thought you are dead, but you are ressurected
Like a Jesus creating things of nothing
Standing on the scene, in front of us
The feeding of the five thousand with bullshit and lies

Tickets have been sold out, show has begun
Forgotten Gods bewitch the crowd
Another miracle of music business
The feeding of the five, five thousand with bullshit and lies

Exploitation of the beer bellied rebel

- Meinhof

 

Yeah, it seems many people seem to keep Steve Ignorant etc on pedestal as icon. He is just human being.

 

Ungovernable: Steve is the only member who continued on steadily with other bands such as Conflict, Stratford Mercenaries, etc. Whereas the message was the motivation to everyone else involved, I think the music played just as big of a role to him. Penny, albeit a great person, was notorious for forcing bands to record the songs he wanted and destroying the quality by mixing it to his liking. Call it a "producer role", I call it stripping away the voice and identity of each band by making them
sound how YOU want with no consideration for their opinion. My point is that everyone has their own agenda and thats that. Steve did Crass songs live with SM in 97 when I saw them. No one was complaining then! Penny and the rest of the lot dont want to play music anymore and I think a certain animosity forms when a project exists outside of your comfort zone, but now I'm rambling.

 

Placing the members of Crass on a pedestal is, ironically, the antithesis of their ideology.
Steve Ignorant, like the rest of Crass, is just an ordinary human being who was involved in something special 30 years ago.

 

Never glorify a band or any of its members.

 

First of all, I wouldn't judge Steve by any bands he's sharin the bill with. Angelic Upstarts are a bit of a joke if you ask me, that stuff they did on EMI was fuckin terrible.

It would appear it's for the dolla dolla cos he's hardly pushin the political or creative side to Crass's work much but I could really care a fuck. It's like a tribute act but it has one of the original members, that's pretty cool in itself.

Also, recognising that he's just human and for those that worship Penny, the sort of uniformity he enforced when producing records for the Crass label. Both good points but personally I don't think it really affects any of us all that much so let people go and enjoy themselves for the rather crass Karoake event it'll undoubtedly be.

 

To me...It doesn't matter what we think, Steve is going to do what he wants. I think it was right for Penny to give him permission by not hording his own work. Hell, if some of the people at those events didn't know crass before, now they do and they can make their own judgments.

25 euros for that show? Thats like 40 American dollars!! It is quite expensive, that is inexcusable in my eyes.

And yea, Conflict is the same way ive heard so much shit about that band doing corporate promotions and such... cant give a solid example right now... if someone knows what im talking about help me out...

So yea... everyones human, i like some crass songs and what not just like any other band. And i can agree to those who say he turned into someone he once railed against. So meh.. there are more important issues in the world than what steve ignorant is doing

 

It's sad, but it happens all the time. Look at against me!

That's one major reason I am a supporter of the free market, because no one can realistically put their full effort into a band that theyre not making any money off of. Money encourages people to do things WELL as opposed to half assed.
I don't see anything wrong with making money off your music, but if you push these socialist ideas your whole life, and then turn around and do what ignorant is doing, it's downright hypocritical.

I abolutely understand why he's doing it, and respect his right to. My only problem is the blatant hypocrisy..."Selling" anti-capitalist music is kind of a load of horseshit anyway you look at it.

 

communists, socialists, capitalists, anarchists.... they all need to make a living somehow.
how many of us had jobs we absolutely hated?

 

hmmm... i would love to be able to have a job and make money as Steve Ignorant does... performing great music for a living. I would be very surprised if Steve hated his "job."

-the anxietist

 

i mean playing shitty shows as a shitty job..

 

but that's just your opinion. who's to say that Steve Ignorant feels they are shitty shows?

-the anxietist

 

He's an old guy who doesnt care that much about anarchist ideals anymore...Whats the big surprise?