I think you’ll find that there were many sxe people at that YOT gig in London – and not just from the uk. There were a heck of alot over from Belgium. To be honest, there were most probably more people there to see snuff than yot, hence the high bar takings.

FACT – The hardline movement came more out of anarcho punk than sxe. The originators of hardline were anarcho punks and not sxe hardcore people. They adopted sxe later and were anarchists and punks foremost.

The debut release, a compilation LP benefit for the ALF featuring chumbawumba, man’s hate, naturecore, toxic waste, body count, paranoid visions, beefeater, powerage, anti-heroes, oi polloi, statement and vegan reich : on no master’s voice records show the anarcho punk ties of the originator before changing the name of the label to hardline records and adopting a drug free stance.

I’ve always assumed Ian McKaye was against serial shagging so to speak and not against sex in itself.

I do recall the majority of the stupids pushing the straight edge.

Alot of the uk sxe crew did descend. So what its not a competition.

martin ( / )
‘Positive Dental Outlook’, LMAO
2005/02/03 @ 10:18 am

matt b
ah, those were the days! i was particularly fond of bold (anthem: ‘nailed to the X’)- who turned into glam metallers into another, chain of strength, gorilla biscuits, slapshot (‘punk’s dead, you’re next’) etc.

crucial youth is much more likely to get on the stereo nowadays though
2005/02/03 @ 10:57 am

john
A mate of mine reckoned all the UK sXe crew he knew ended up as smackhead crusties. That’s not you, is it, Lex and Matt

MacKaye is a classic example of “life of brian” really – apparently “I don’t fuck” was more about one night stands than, y’know, the act itself. But people obviously took it all a bit literally, like – more fool them!
2005/02/03 @ 11:34 am

matt b ( / )
well, some of the SxEx crew are/were in this band:http://www.rockphotography.co.uk/LIVE/DukesONowt/DukesONowt_BB_03.htm which isn’t too far off the mark

mackaye does get a bad press- i think because of his (upper) middle class background which wound up NYHC types.
seems like a very sensible bloke to me.
2005/02/03 @ 11:58 am

Gyrus ( / http://dreamflesh.com/ )
Excellent! I’d forgotten about Crucial Youth. The crowd I was with when I was 15/16 were very into hardcore with some straight edge leanings, but we always took the extreme straight edge stuff with tongue in cheek (and it all probably made us feel better about not getting laid, let’s face it).

Some great bands around/coming out of that scene though – Fugazi and Bad Brains have rarely been matched. And Dagnasty had some good tunes.

Remember The Stupids as being a good indication of what happened over here post-Minor Threat. No one here took it quite as seriously as in the US.
2005/02/03 @ 12:28 pm

Merrick ( / http://bristlingbadger.blogspot.com/ )
This series of posts is fuckin superb, John.

I’ve always been more of a pop kid myself, but in the 80s anyone into anything ‘alternative’ tended to band together, so there was a lot of cross-pollination of tastes.

The DIY ethic of 80s punk appealed to me as much as the music itself. To this day I still have The Stupids ‘Violent Nun’ EP and Generic’s ‘For A Free And Liberted South Africa’ EP.

The latter opens with a voice saying ‘when you think of the countless number of more useful things you can do with a piece of plastic other than make a record out of it, we felt the least we could do was say something worthwhile on it’. It also comes with a detailed breakdown of where and how they had the record made and how much it cost.

Thanks again for these posts; fascinating, well-written, excellent.
2005/02/08 @ 12:53 pm

paul \
This has got to be the best series of “set piece” blogs since 2003.

I always thought straight-edgers were a bunch if narrow minded cunts but I always did have a somewhat dionysian attitude.

The Stupids! Ipswich’s finest skatecore. Nothing to do with straight edge though? Far too much humour. I remember Dagnasty too.
2005/02/16 @ 02:40 pm