Crass Records - Overview and History

Overview and History

Prior to the formation of Crass, Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher had published their creative works via their own Dial House based Exitstencil Press. However the band set up the record label after encountering problems over the release of their first 12" EP, The Feeding Of The 5000, on the Small Wonder label in 1978. Workers at the Irish pressing plant contracted to manufacture the disc refused to handle it due to the allegedly blasphemous content of one song, "Asylum". The record was eventually released with this track removed and replaced by two minutes of silence, wryly retitled "The Sound Of Free Speech". However, this incident prompted Crass to set up their own record label to control all aspects of their future productions. Using money from a small inheritance that had been left to one of the band, the piece was shortly afterwards re-recorded and released as a 7" single using its full title, "Reality Asylum". A later repress of The Feeding Of The 5000 on Crass Records restored the missing track.

As well as releasing their own material, Crass were able to use Crass Records to make available recordings by other performers, the first of which was the 1980 single "You Can Be You" by Honey Bane, a teenage girl who at the time was staying at Dial House whilst on the run from a children's home (however, Bane's backing band on this release are in fact Crass, using the name Donna and the Kebabs). Others who recorded for the label included Zounds, Flux of Pink Indians, The Cravats, Conflict, Icelandic band KUKL (who included singer Björk), classical singer Jane Gregory, and the Poison Girls, a like-minded band who worked closely with Crass for several years. Many of these groups in turn went on to set up their own independent record labels loosely following the Crass Records model.

The label also put out three editions of Bullshit Detector, compilations of demos and rough recordings that had been sent to the band which they felt represented the DIY punk ethic.

Singles released on the Crass Records label had a distinctive 'corporate identity'. As well as lyrically addressing political themes from a broadly anarchist perspective, they were always low priced and usually produced by Crass drummer Penny Rimbaud and engineered by John Loder at Southern Studios in north London. They also featured sleeves designed by Gee Vaucher, often in conjunction with other artists, wherein the record's title and band name were set in 'stencil' style text in a black ring (see examples above) reminiscent of many of Robert Indiana and Jasper Johns' works. These folded out into large posters containing additional artwork and text.

The catalogue numbers of Crass Records releases were intended to represent a countdown to the year 1984 (e.g., 521984 meaning "five years until 1984"), both the year that Crass stated that they would split up, and a date charged with significance in the anti-authoritarian calendar due to George Orwell's novel of the same name (see Nineteen Eighty-Four).

Although these vinyl records are now long deleted, many of the tracks have been collected and re-released on the A-Sides parts one and two compilation CDs. Crass' back catalogue however remains in print, both in vinyl and CD format.

Ex-Crass members Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher continue to put out their creative works (for example, material by Last Amendment, and Vaucher's book Animal Rites) through Exitstencil, often in collaboration with other publishers such as the jazz label Babel Label and AK Press.